A $3 million grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities will help fund the completion of ‘The Papers of James Monroe,’ a project of the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library.

A $3 million grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) will accelerate the completion of The Papers of James Monroe.

The funding will allow the 10-volume series, an expansive resource on America’s fifth president, to be completed early – in 2031, rather than 2035 as previously slated – in time to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Monroe’s death.

The five-year grant was awarded under the NEH’s Scholarly Editions in American History: Chairman’s Special Initiative program. It will fund personnel and other expenses related to the completion of the final three volumes of The Papers of James Monroe project, administered by the University of Mary Washington’s James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library in historic Fredericksburg.

“This transformative grant is a testament to the excellent work done by staff of The Papers of James Monroe over more than three decades,” said University Museums Executive Director Scott Harris. “We are grateful for the opportunity this presents to complete the project much sooner than would have been possible otherwise.”

Read more about the NEH grant.

Biomedical sciences major Mallory Thompson ’26

When Mallory Thompson ’26 was interviewed for the Rae Elizabeth Smith ’59 Washington Scholarship, she asked the committee what experiences she shouldn’t miss out on as a University of Mary Washington student.

“They told me, unanimously, that I should study abroad,” said Thompson, a senior biomedical sciences major from Spotsylvania who went on to earn the prestigious award that provides full tuition, fees, and housing and dining for in-state students. “Receiving that scholarship totally changed my college experience.”

She also recently earned the Grellet C. Simpson International Scholarship, which supported her studies during the fall semester at the University College Cork in Ireland. At this world-class research institution, she took courses in anatomy and philosophy for her practical ethics minor, along with Celtic cultural classes like Irish mythology and step-dancing, as well as a lesser known form of traditional folk dancing known as “Irish sets.”

“I’m so grateful to my donors for providing me with these experiences,” Thompson said. An aspiring physician, she joined UMW’s Pre-Health Society, volunteers with Red Cross blood drives and Mary Washington Healthcare’s emergency department and traveled with Global Medical Brigades to treat patients in rural Panama – and dances with the Performing Arts Company for fun.

Read more about student’s journey from cancer research to Celtic culture.

Anand Rao, Director of the Center for AI and the Liberal Arts Anand Rao (pictured) will lead a free, online AI strategy session on Jan. 21 tailored to leaders, executives and HR directors.

The University of Mary Washington’s Center for AI and the Liberal Arts in partnership with Continuing and Professional Studies will offer an executive strategy session on Wednesday, Jan. 21, at noon. The virtual seminar, titled “AI ROI: Empowering your Team to Work Smarter with AI,” is tailored to leaders, executives and HR directors with no cost to attend online. It will address how to move from the first steps of exploring AI to generating business value.

The free session will cover:

• The “Intern” Trap: Why treating AI like a search engine leads to workforce complacency and how to fix it.
• The Bubble vs. Reality: A clear-eyed look at the massive infrastructure spending compared to headlines about workforce changes.
• Redefining Success: Moving beyond simple time-savings (“Hard ROI”) to capture cultural innovation (“Squishy ROI”).
• The Transformation Loop: A preview of the framework needed to ensure your workforce adapts rather than stagnates.

“We are living through the largest infrastructure build-out in history, yet many companies are finding that AI adoption is yielding more ‘busy work’ than actual productivity,” said Director of the Center for AI and the Liberal Arts and Professor of Communication Anand Rao, who will lead the session. “The problem isn’t the technology—it’s the management strategy behind it.”

Read more about AI Strategy Session.

From left: UMW Director of Maintenance Services Alan Hunter, Assistant Vice President for Facilities and Capital Outlay Brian Gorham, Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank President and CEO Dan Maher, and Fredericksburg resident and author Jim Hall, who convened the project.

A new program aimed at placing air conditioning units in the homes of Fredericksburg area residents this summer has taken flight.

Dubbed “Eagle Air Support” by organizers, the joint effort of the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank and the University of Mary Washington will reuse surplus window air conditioners from UMW’s Fredericksburg campus.

The program will make use of air conditioning units that were once in student rooms in Russell and Marshall Halls. The two campus residence halls will be demolished this school year to make way for a new theatre as the academic home for Mary Washington’s Department of Theatre and Dance.

“As we take down two storied buildings on campus, we’ve looked for ways to salvage usable materials, including the air conditioning units, as well as items and bricks that preserve memories for alumni,” said UMW Assistant Vice President for Facilities and Capital Outlay Brian Gorham. “UMW Facilities Operations staff started with the process of removing and refurbishing these AC units to benefit the community.”

The Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank has obtained 50 of the units from the University through the Virginia State Surplus Donation Program. The units will be made available at no cost to the food bank’s member pantries for distribution to their clients in the spring and summer months.

Read more about this partnership.

We’re excited to share that in spring 2026, we plan to launch UMW’s official generative AI platform, based on Cloudforce’s NebulaONE. As an enterprise solution, across all of UMW’s core functions, this platform will be developed deliberately to support broad access to AI, enable advanced academic and pedagogical innovation, and maintain clear governance and data protections.

We anticipate that there will be numerous applications and conversations about the AI tools as they become available, so we wanted to send this preview announcement so you can factor in the tools and the toolkit to your spring courses and projects. Our implementation of NebulaONE will provide a general-purpose learning and productivity tool, available to all current students, faculty and staff. We’ll update you when the log-in access is ready.

Once it’s launched, you’ll have access to a set of generative AI tools, available campus-wide, without the need for separate purchases or log-ins. We’ll have GPT types for a variety of projects, including documents, images, data analysis and more, all through a secure, campus-managed environment for teaching, learning, research, and administrative work within artificial intelligence tools and platforms. Through training sessions, you’ll be able to advance your skills in AI in this controlled environment, while expanding the resources available in your courses. These offerings will stem from Digital Learning Services, in coordination with the Center for AI and the Liberal Arts.

We appreciate the leadership of the AI working group in bringing this project forward. This group will continue to play a central role in refining how AI is used, identifying future expansion points, and shaping best practices, ensuring it adheres to our high standards of academic integrity.

We look forward to sending the official announcement of the launch of our instance of NebulaONE in the spring semester and offering initial training sessions, access instruction and FAQs. If you have interest in being an early adopter as you return from winter break, please contact Chief Information Officer Jonathan Piersol at piersol@umw.edu or Center for AI and the Liberal Arts Director Anand Rao at arao@umw.edu.

Offering readers fresh perspectives to explore during the winter season, recently published works from University of Mary Washington faculty and alumni span history, international relations, poetry, young-adult fiction and more.

The new titles and their authors are:

• NATO After Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: Threat Perceptions and Their Consequences by Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Jason Davidson
• Magick Squared by Jen Furlong ’14
• The Brides of War: A Vietnam War Novel by Steve Gladis
• The Song of North Mountain by Elizabeth Morgan Golladay ’68
• State Builders from the Steppe: A History of the First Bulgarian Empire by Eric D. Halsey ’11
• Football Is …: What the Game Does To Us, For Us, Through Us by Associate Professor of Economics Shawn Humphrey
• The Language Work of Speechwriters by Gwynne Mapes ’08
• The Buried Cause: Unearthing Hidden History in the Lee Monument Cornerstone by Adjunct Instructor of Historic Preservation Katherine Ridgway

Read more about recent books by UMW faculty, alumni and friends.

University of Mary Washington students present original research during a series of end-of-semester symposia showcasing undergraduate work across academic disciplines.

Students across the University of Mary Washington capped off their fall semester with an unexpected snow day that only added to the excitement of presenting original research and creative work developed over months of effort.

Across a series of end-of-semester symposia—held in multiple academic departments and only slightly reshuffled due to the weather—students shared the outcomes of that work. Posters, video screenings, presentations and discussions offered a window into the range of questions students pursued and the methods they used to explore them. Projects spanned the sciences, humanities, arts and social sciences, illustrating the breadth of research and creativity that defines UMW’s undergraduate experience.

At the Jepson Science Center Fall Research Symposium, more than 70 projects were showcased. Undergraduate researchers in biology, chemistry, physics, earth and environmental sciences filled the lobby and main floor with posters detailing experiments, fieldwork and laboratory analysis. The projects reflected a wide range of scientific inquiry—from immune signaling and neurodegeneration to watershed ecology and climate reconstruction.

“These end-of-semester symposia display what students can do when they take ownership of research and creative inquiry,” said Director of Undergraduate Research Elizabeth Lewis. “The work reflects not only technical skill but curiosity, persistence and a willingness to ask a lot of questions.”

Read more about UMW Fall Symposia.