Emily Deering Crosby, Assistant Professor of Communication, presented “Country Music as Safe Space: Xenophobia in Patriotic Music Fandom” on an international panel on xenophobia at the National Communication Association Conference on November 10, 2018. Her research analyzes white women’s online reactions to the collaborative performance of the Dixie Chicks and Beyoncé at the 2016 Country Music Association Awards just days before the 2016 Presidential election. Her analysis reveals key intersectional themes of territoriality, sexism, and racism enacted by xenophobic white women in their often specious pursuit of protecting white men’s patriotic Americana, signaling alliances that are largely reflected in recent voting trends.
Rochelle’s Story Chosen for Inclusion in Anthology
December 4, 2018 by
Professor of English Warren Rochelle’s story “Mirrors,” a gay-themed retelling of “Beauty and the Beast,” was accepted by Cuilpress and will be published in their forthcoming queering romance anthology So You Think You Know Love?.
Dasgupta Presents at Popular Culture Conference
December 4, 2018 by
Shumona Dasgupta, Associate Professor of English, presented a paper on Bollywood and the Partition, entitled “Mothers of the Nation: Gender and Identity in Indian Partition Cinema,” at the 29th annual Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association conference in Baltimore (November 8-9, 2018). The paper has since been nominated for the MAPACA Donald Award, which recognizes an outstanding paper and presentation delivered at MAPACA’s annual conference.
Rao Receives National Communication Service Award
November 15, 2018 by
Anand Rao, professor of communication, was awarded the 2018 Hobgood Service Award at the annual conference of the National Communication Association in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was recognized for “dedication to excellence, commitment to the profession, concern for others, appreciation of diversity, and vision of what could be.” As past chair of the Communication Centers Division for NCA, he helped run the annual business meeting. In addition, he also served on a discussion panel titled “Communication at Play: Creating Strategic Partnerships between the Basic Course and First Year Experiences.” There he talked about UMW’s QEP/FSEM, how it serves as a basic communication course for new students, and how the Speaking Center helps to support the FSEM.
Rao Represents University at Faculty Senate of Virginia, Presents at Conference
October 25, 2018 by
On Saturday, October 20, P. Anand Rao, Professor of Communication and Director of the Speaking Intensive Program and the Speaking Center, and Marcel Rotter, Associate Professor of German, represented the University of Mary Washington at the Faculty Senate of Virginia meeting held at Virginia Commonwealth University. Rao is currently serving as president of FSVA, and Rotter is serving as treasurer. They were joined by representatives from twelve other schools and discussed plans for Virginia Higher Education Advocacy Day, which will be held on January 10, 2019.
On Tuesday, October 23, Rao gave a presentation at the Assessment Institute Conference held in Indianapolis titled “Using Assessment Results to Re-Tool the First-Year Seminar.” Despite a 7 a.m. slot, there was a good turnout of 20+ persons and a very active discussion.
Richards Presents at American Literature Association Conference
June 4, 2018 by
Gary Richards, Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication, presented “Queering Welty’s Male Bodies in the Undergraduate Classroom” on the roundtable devoted to teaching the works of Eudora Welty at the American Literature Association Conference in San Francisco, Calif., held May 24-27, 2018.
Blevins’ Dissertation Garners Honorable Mention
June 4, 2018 by
The dissertation of Brenta Blevins, assistant professor of English, entitled “From Corporeality to Virtual Reality: Theorizing Literacy, Bodies, and Technology in the Emerging Media of Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Realities,” received honorable mention designation for the 2017 Computers and Composition Hugh Burns Dissertation Award, as announced at the 2018 Computers and Writing Conference in Fairfax, VA. This award acknowledges and supports the growth of scholarship, research, and teaching in the field of Computers and Composition Studies.
Blevins’ dissertation examines Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality texts and their rhetorical and composing strategies, situates VR, AR, and MR into a continuum of communication practices using a range of classical and contemporary theories, and concludes with pedagogical approaches for incorporating these media into classroom assignments. Blevins completed her dissertation at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro under the direction of Stephen Yarbrough and graduated in May 2017.
Whalen, Blevins, and Skallerup Bessette Present at Computers and Writing Conference
May 29, 2018 by
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Blevins
Skallerup Bessette
Zach Whalen, Associate Professor of English; Brenta Blevins, Assistant Professor of English; and Lee Skallerup Bessette, Instructional Technology Specialist, recently gave presentations that constituted a panel at the 2018 Computers and Writing Conference, held at George Mason University.
The session was titled “Locating Digital Writing Space,” and the presenters talked about the origins of the Console Living Room project, using Augmented Reality with students to expand and complicate their sense of that space, and the ethos of Domain of One’s Own as digital writing space.
Subrmananian Chosen as Livingston Awards Finalist
May 8, 2018 by
Sushma Subramanian, assistant professor of English with a focus on journalism, is a finalist for the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists. The award honors the best reporting and storytelling by journalists under 35 and is popularly known as the Pulitzer for the Young. The work for which she is being recognized is a cover story for Slate on a cruel medical experiment done in Guatemala in the 1940s and the subjects and their families who are still affected.
Read the piece here:
The award winners will be chosen in June.
A complete list of finalists can be found here: https://wallacehouse.umich.edu/2018-livingston-award-finalists-announced/
