Janusz Konieczny, professor of mathematics, published a research article, A new definition of conjugacy for semigroups, in the Journal of Algebra and Its Applications. This research has been supported by a 2015-17 Waple Professorship.
Konieczny Presents at American Mathematical Society Meeting
October 13, 2016 by
Janusz Konieczny, professor of mathematics, gave a talk, A new definition of conjugacy for semigroups, in the Special Session on Recent Trends in Semigroup Theory at the meeting of the American Mathematical Society, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, Oct. 8-9, 2016.
UMW Psychologists Discuss Balance on Public Radio Show
January 16, 2015 by
University of Mary Washington psychologists Miriam Liss and Holly Schiffrin say that finding happiness in life doesn’t come from having more material possessions.
“There’s really no way to be all in at work, all in as a parent, all in as a partner or spouse and all in in other social roles like volunteering,” said Liss who coauthors the recently released book Balancing the Big Stuff: Finding Happiness in Work, Family and Lifewith her colleague. “You have to find out what works for you to give balance in life.”
Liss and Schiffrin explore how to achieve this balance in an upcoming interview on Virginia’s Public Radio Program With Good Reason, which airs Jan. 24 through Jan. 30.
In the radio show, they discuss how to avoid working or parenting in excess, how to focus on what is intrinsically motivating, and how to work toward gender equality in the home and workplace in order to give concrete steps toward reaching harmony among our roles in life.
With Good Reason is a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. The show airs weekly in Fredericksburg on Sundays from 1-2 p.m. on Radio IQ 88.3 Digital. The show also airs broadcast on public radio stations in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington D.C. To listen from outside of the Fredericksburg area, a complete list of air times and links to corresponding radio stations can be found at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/when-to-listen. Audio files of the full program and its companion news feature are available online at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2015/01/where-did-you-come-from.
Liss and Schiffrin are international experts on the subjects of happiness, gender issues and intensive and helicopter parenting. Liss is the recipient of the prestigious 2015 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV). Schiffrin is president of the Virginia Academic and Applied Psychologist Academy of the Virginia Psychological Association.
Balancing work and family also is personal for Liss and Schiffrin. While maintaining full teaching and research loads, they also are raising young children.
“There’s really no way to be all in at work, all in as a parent, all in as a partner or spouse and all in in other social roles like volunteering,” said Liss who coauthors the recently released book Balancing the Big Stuff: Finding Happiness in Work, Family and Lifewith her colleague. “You have to find out what works for you to give balance in life.”
Liss and Schiffrin explore how to achieve this balance in an upcoming interview on Virginia’s Public Radio Program With Good Reason, which airs Jan. 24 through Jan. 30.
In the radio show, they discuss how to avoid working or parenting in excess, how to focus on what is intrinsically motivating, and how to work toward gender equality in the home and workplace in order to give concrete steps toward reaching harmony among our roles in life.
With Good Reason is a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. The show airs weekly in Fredericksburg on Sundays from 1-2 p.m. on Radio IQ 88.3 Digital. The show also airs broadcast on public radio stations in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington D.C. To listen from outside of the Fredericksburg area, a complete list of air times and links to corresponding radio stations can be found at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/when-to-listen. Audio files of the full program and its companion news feature are available online at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2015/01/where-did-you-come-from.
Liss and Schiffrin are international experts on the subjects of happiness, gender issues and intensive and helicopter parenting. Liss is the recipient of the prestigious 2015 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV). Schiffrin is president of the Virginia Academic and Applied Psychologist Academy of the Virginia Psychological Association.
Balancing work and family also is personal for Liss and Schiffrin. While maintaining full teaching and research loads, they also are raising young children.UMW Geography Professor Awarded National Grant
June 19, 2014 by
University of Mary Washington professor Stephen Hanna is the recipient of a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to conduct fieldwork at plantation museums in the American South. Hanna is professor of geography at UMW, and is an expert on commemorative landscapes, cartography, and critical applications of GIS.
Hanna and his research partners will conduct fieldwork at plantations, like the Oak Alley Plantation in Louisiana. Photo by Arnold Modlin (Norfolk State).
The NSF grant, totaling $445,423 over three years, will support the project “Transformation of Racialized American Southern Heritage Landscape.” Hanna is co-principal investigator for the project with David Butler (University of Southern Mississippi), Derek Alderman (University of Tennessee), Perry Carter (Texas Tech University), Amy Potter (Armstrong Atlantic State University), and Arnold Modlin (Norfolk State University).
The grant, supplemented by Hanna’s Waple Professorship, will allow Hanna and three UMW undergraduate students to join faculty and graduate students from the other universities to conduct fieldwork at plantation museums in Louisiana, coastal South Carolina and Georgia, and Virginia’s James River region.
Stephen Hanna
During the fieldwork, students and faculty will survey and interview plantation visitors, tour guides, and owners, and will conduct participant observations of the tours. Based on pilot research already conducted at four plantation museums in Louisiana, the researchers aim to determine how and to what extent narratives of the enslaved are incorporated in the landscapes and narrations of these museums. They will document visitors’ experiences to show how the role of slavery in the region’s and country’s history are presented at these sites.
Throughout the project, Hanna will teach UMW students to transcribe, code and analyze qualitative data. Students will map the plantation sites and create a website, hosted by UMW, to disseminate the project’s results.
UMW to Award Emeritus Status at Commencement
May 5, 2014 by
Six longtime professors will be awarded emeritus status at the University of Mary Washington’s undergraduate commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 10.
Six professors will be given emeritus status at the UMW Commencement ceremony on May 10.
David Cain will be named Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Religion; James F. Gaines will be named Professor Emeritus of French; David Hunt will be named Professor Emeritus of Theatre; Kathryn E. Loesser-Casey will be named Professor Emerita of Biology; Donald Rallis will be named Professor Emeritus of Geography; and Stephen P. Stageberg will be named Professor Emeritus of Economics.
The title of emeritus is bestowed on faculty members who have served the university for at least 15 years and who have attained the rank of professor or associate professor.
The university’s undergraduate commencement ceremony, which will begin at 9 a.m. on Ball Circle, will feature an address by Rebecca Rubin, founder, president and CEO of Marstel-Day. Kenneth Lopez ’92, the founder and CEO of A2L Consulting, will be the guest speaker for the graduate address on Friday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the William M. Anderson Center.
David Cain
David Cain has taught religion at UMW since 1970, with a special interest in Kierkegaard, contemporary Christian theology and Dostoevsky studies. He is widely published in the areas of Kierkegaard studies, Elie Wiesel, religion and literature, contemporary Christian theology, and dialogue among religions.
A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he was awarded the title of Distinguished Professor, UMW’s highest academic rank, in 1994. In 1992, he received the Grellet C. Simpson Award, the university’s most prestigious award for a senior member of the faculty.
A former full-time minister at Clarendon Congregational Church in Clarendon, Vermont, Cain received a bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. from Princeton University and a bachelor of divinity degree from Yale University.
James F. Gaines
After teaching for 20 years at Southeastern Louisiana University and serving multiple terms as head of its Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Jim Gaines joined the Mary Washington faculty in 1998 and completed two terms as chair of the Department of Modern Foreign Languages before returning to full-time teaching.
During his UMW tenure, Gaines completed his two most recent books, “The Molière Encyclopedia” and “Molière and Paradox,” as well as numerous professional articles and a growing number of translations from different centuries of French poetry and prose. He plans to continue his research activities in several scholarly societies and to publish in the near future his volume of poetry, “Downriver Waltz,” and a novel co-written with his son John (UMW Class of 2005), “Life Sentence.”
Gaines received a bachelor’s degree in French from Michigan State University, and master’s and doctoral degrees in French from the University of Pennsylvania.
David E. Hunt
David E. Hunt Jr. first came to UMW in 1982 and became a titled professor in 2001. An expert on scenery design, scenery lighting, scene painting and theatrical makeup, he has designed scenery or lighting for more than 150 theatre and dance productions.
Hunt received an AMOCO Excellence in Scene Design Award for his production of “Much Ado About Nothing.” He is an accomplished artist whose work hangs in local galleries and is widely commissioned by private collectors.
Hunt received a bachelor’s degree in 1973 in drama from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a master of fine arts degree in scene design from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Kathryn E. Loesser-Casey
In the 20 years Kathryn E. Loesser-Casey has been at Mary Washington, she has taught 11 different courses – many of which she developed – in the Department of Biological Sciences. She has mentored more than 42 undergraduate research students, 16 of whom received departmental honors for their work. She also has been active in her field of expertise, cardiovascular disease mechanisms. Since joining the UMW faculty, she has published 10 peer-reviewed research articles and co-authored a book chapter. In addition, Loesser-Casey has received funding for major grants from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Science Foundation.
She received a bachelor’s in zoology from Drew University in 1976 and a Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Rutgers in 1988. She did two postdoctoral fellowships, one in the Department of Biology at University of Pennsylvania and the other in the Internal Medicine Department at the Medical College of Virginia.
Donald Rallis
A native of South Africa, Donald Rallis arrived at UMW in 1990. He created field programs in South Africa, Cambodia, Australia and New Zealand, and is known for integrating web technologies into his classes. He is an expert on apartheid and other current political developments in his homeland, as well as the geography and history of South Africa.
He is writing a book called “Online Around the World: A Geographic Encyclopedia of the Internet, Social Media, and Mobile Apps,” about using technology to further geographic education.
He received a bachelor of arts degree and a bachelor of science with honors degree, both in geography, from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and a master’s degree in geography from University of Miami. His doctorate is from Pennsylvania State University.
Stephen P. Stageberg
Stephen P. Stageberg has been at Mary Washington for 32 years and has led the faculty procession and carried the official mace at Commencement for three quarters of that time.
Stageberg received his undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees from Georgetown University, where he also served for four years as the school’s assistant director of athletics. He also served as an aide to former U.S. Senator William Proxmire.
In addition to his long tenure as faculty marshal at UMW, Stageberg has served as Intervarsity adviser, faculty representative to the NCAA, Class Council adviser and in many other key campus roles.
UMW Biology Professor Receives Fulbright Grant
April 17, 2014 by
Dianne Baker, associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Mary Washington, has been selected to receive a 2014-2015 Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant. Baker will conduct research at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Oslo, Norway beginning in January 2015.
Professor Dianne Baker
The Fulbright Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program.
Baker is an animal physiologist who joined UMW’s biology department in 2006. As part of her Fulbright grant, Baker will employ molecular techniques to study the roles of neurohormones in brain development, using the Japanese rice fish. She will work alongside graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and other visiting scientists from around the world. During her research period, Baker hopes to learn cutting edge techniques in physiological research that she can bring back to UMW.
While in Norway, Baker also will guest lecture on animal physiology at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science. She also plans to attend the ninth annual European Zebrafish Meeting, hosted at Finn-Arne Weltzien’s lab in Oslo in 2015.
Baker received a bachelor’s degree from Evergreen State College and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Washington.
Janusz Konieczny Publishes in Asian-European Journal of Mathematics
March 13, 2014 by
Janusz Konieczny, professor of mathematics, published a research article, Automorphism groups of endomorphism monoids of free G_sets, in the Asian-European Journal of Mathematics.
McClurken Receives Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award
January 16, 2014 by
University of Mary Washington Professor of History Jeffrey McClurken is the recipient of a prestigious 2014 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV).
Jeffrey McClurken, professor and chair of history and American studies
The awards are the Commonwealth’s highest honor for faculty at Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities, recognizing superior accomplishments in teaching, research and public service. This year, 12 faculty members were selected from a highly competitive pool of candidates. In February, the recipients will each receive a $5,000 cash award underwritten by Dominion Foundation.
McClurken, who joined the UMW faculty in 2001, has been instrumental to the university’s digital history efforts and has been on the forefront of incorporating technology in the classroom. He also serves as chairperson of the history and American studies department.
He has presented numerous lectures and presentations across the country on teaching with social media, digital history and 19th-century American social and cultural history. His 2009 book “Take Care of the Living: Reconstructing Confederate Veteran Families in Virginia” examines the long-term consequences of the Civil War for veterans and their families in Southside Virginia.
McClurken, named to the Princeton Review’s inaugural list of “300 Best Professors,” received the Mary Washington Young Alumnus Award in 2003 and the J. Christopher Bill Outstanding Faculty Service Award in 2012.
In addition to his work in the history department, McClurken has served as chair of numerous university committees, including the Campus Academic Resources Committee, the Race and Gender Curriculum Advisory Committee and the Provost’s Ad Hoc University Committee on Digital Initiatives. He also has been active in countless university-wide initiatives, including the Teaching and Learning Technologies Roundtable, the Monroe Hall Renovation Planning Committee and the College of Arts and Sciences Strategic Planning Committee.
Outside of UMW, McClurken frequently lends his time to local public school systems, as well as to the Central Rappahannock Regional Library.
A 1994 graduate of Mary Washington, McClurken received a master’s degree and doctorate from Johns Hopkins University.
The General Assembly and Governor created the Outstanding Faculty Award program in 1986. Since the first awards in 1987, more than 300 Virginia faculty members have received this high honor. For more information about the program, visit http://www.schev.edu/AdminFaculty/OFA/OFAprogramOverview.asp.
