Category: What’s New @ UMW

Faculty and Staff can use EagleOne ID as a debit card.  The card can be used on campus, at many local restaurants in Eagle Village, Downtown Fredericksburg and Central Park as well as the CVS located at 591 Jefferson Davis Highway.  Make deposits online or sign up for payroll deduction.

At the end of the calendar year, the University received a gift of $33,333 to support the existing Chiles Scholarship. The late Dorothy Chiles Hodnette ’26 originally established the Chiles Scholarship in 1992 to showcase her love for Mary Washington and to honor her three sisters: Avie Bell Chiles Smith ’19, Lula Garland Chiles Clark ’31, and Mary Chiles Henderson ’27.

Mrs. Hodnette’s daughter, Dr. Lucy Gibbs, made the new gift to augment the endowed scholarship to benefit students who demonstrate exceptional academic ability.

This gift announcement is from the Office of Advancement and University Relations.

Eight faculty members were awarded sabbatical leaves for all or part of the 2012-13 academic year to pursue a research or other professional development project, according to the December 2011 newsletter from the Provost’s Office.  Another six faculty members will spend the next academic year as Jepson Fellows with a half-time teaching load while they pursue a research project that has particular and direct application to their teaching.

The 2012-13 sabbatical awardees and their project statements are listed below:

• Nabil Al-Tikriti, Department of History and American Studies.  Project for spring 2013: complete final chapters of monograph on the Ottoman empire and submit final draft for publication.

• David Cain, Department of Classics, Philosophy, and Religion.  Project for fall 2012: complete a collection of essays on Kierkegaard.

• Mindy Erchull, Department of Psychology.  Project for fall 2012: analyze collected data, prepare to present project and results for publication on objectification among young women.

• Eric Gable, Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Project for spring 2013: complete book on the archeology of art.

• James Gaines, Department of Modern Foreign Languages.  Project for spring 2013: complete series of articles on 18^th century literature.

• Stephen Hanna, Department of Geography.  Project for 2012-13 academic year: consolidate research and submit book for publication on heritage tourism in Fredericksburg.

• Bruce O’Brien, Department of History and American Studies.  Project for 2012-13 academic year: complete book draft for a series on modern England (Academic year 2012-2013).

• Jennifer Polack-Wahl, Department of Computer Science.  Project for spring 2013: complete final testing of iTouch to be used in elementary education.

Jepson Fellows and titles of their projects for 2012-13 are:

• Janet Asper, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, “Development of Super-absorbing Organic Gellants for Crude Oil, and a Polymer Themed Organic Chemistry Laboratory Curriculum”

• Julius N. Esunge, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, “Minimizing Insurance Company Risk in a Random Framework”

• Ben LaBreche, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication (English), “Liberty Agonistes: The Problem of Freedom in the Age of Milton”

• Jangwoon (Leo) Lee, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, “A Domain Decomposition Method for Mathematical Models with Random Input Data”

• Jason Matzke, Associate Professor, Department of Classics, Philosophy, and Religion (Philosophy), “Between Civil Disobedience and Burning Rage: Reframing Radical Environmental Activism within Deliberative Democracy”

• Colin Rafferty, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication (English), “Beyond Truth: A False Memoir in Literature and Culture”

Daniel Preston, editor of the Papers of James Monroe, published volume four of the Monroe Papers, which covers the years 1796-1802, in November.  Preston, who has been the editor of the Monroe Papers at UMW since 1999, received a three-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in September.  Prior to the receipt of the NEH grant, the Monroe Papers received major support from a gift to UMW from Robert and Alice Jepson.

Birding at Stratford: Left Out In The Cold. 9 a.m.–1 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 14.

Dr. Andrew Dolby, chair of the University of Mary Washington’s Department of Biological Sciences and president of the Virginia Society of Ornithology, will lead a walk across the estate and discuss adaptation of birds to the challenges of winter. This is the first in four-part series of programs through September.

Registration is $25 with a $10 box lunch optional; the program is free to Friends of Stratford  members. To register, email rsvp@stratfordhall.org, fax 804/493-0333 or leave a voicemail, 804-493/8038, ext. 7787. Continuing Education Units  available.

Details:  bit.ly/xoPGAS. Stratford Hall is 45 minutes east of Fredericksburg off State Route 3.  stratfordhall.org; 804/493-8038.