ARTS AND LETTERS REVIEW
FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY
Dennis Blanton and his students dig through history in Virginia and Georgia
REAL-WORLD IMPACT
Taking the classroom worldwide, students tackle urgent issues in diplomacy and youth justice
STUDENTS AT HEART
Malcolm Taylor’s (‘82) esteemed career of service and mentorship started with a chance encounter
WELCOME
FACULTY FOCUS
STUDENT SHOWCASE
CAMPUS BUZZ
CONTRIBUTORS
Melinda Adams
Associate Dean, Professor of Political Science
Becca Evans
Communications & Marketing
Specialist, College of Arts and Letters
Karina Kline-Gabel
Assistant Dean, Lecturer in World Languages and Cultures (Spanish)
Siân White
Associate Dean, Professor of English
Shannon Wilson
Director of Professional Development and Engagement, College of Arts and Letters
Laura Wisman
Administrative Assistant, College of Arts and Letters
Traci Zimmerman
Interim Dean, Professor of Writing, Rhetoric and Technical
Communication
I have always loved the beginning of fall semester as a space of optimism, of what is possible. It marks the start of a new academic year and a change of season We welcome our new faculty, students, and staff and watch the campus transform There is hope in that space. And, perhaps paradoxically, this change of seasons and semesters becomes the thing that is constant, the foundation from which we can build a future we cannot yet know
Certainly, much has changed since our last issue The Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures has a new name: the Department of World Languages and Cultures JMU has a new, interim president and a new, interim provost. This academic year will certainly be a year of change with the search for a new JMU president and a national search for the dean of this college
These changes are exciting and hopeful, like the start of the school year and the feel of the first, crisp fall days We look to the horizon as it represents both the edge of what we can see and the beginning of the things we can’t and we move toward it, grounded in our commitment to the CAL community: our amazing students and alumni, our inspiring and passionate faculty, our excellent and dedicated staff. The stories in this issue represent this journey who we are, where we ’ ve been, and where we are going and I hope that you find as much joy in reading them as we do in sharing them
Dr. Traci Zimmerman
Interim Dean College of Arts and Letters
Forging Community Connections
Karina Kline-Gabel (‘92), Assistant Dean for CAL, understands that welcoming and belonging are not new concepts. How we define those terms, though, has evolved. "To be welcome and belong means that you simply feel like you're in the right place, without trying to fit in,” she says. “When you belong, you belong as yourself."
Her wisdom draws on personal experience. Born in Harrisonburg and raised in Colombia and Virginia, she experienced life as a firstgeneration immigrant in Harrisonburg at a time when there were only four Spanish-speaking families in the area. When her family spoke Spanish in grocery stores, she recalls, local community members would ask what language they were speaking. "Harrisonburg had not yet become the thriving, diverse city it is now!"
Such experiences drove Kline-Gabel to focus professionally and personally on building bridges across communities for CAL and at the university level. Her courses at JMU about Spanish language and culture, for example, incorporate community-building practices; as she says, "Students need to understand the people and their cultures before gaining the ability to learn their language." Her wildly successful SOMOS JMU Conference in 2023 featured the iconic civil-rights activist and labor leader, Dolores Huerta, whose presence helped bring hundreds of participants from across the university as well as local and state Latinx community members.
In the dean’s office, Kline-Gabel works with faculty, undergraduates, and prospective firstgeneration college students. "It's important for JMU to diversify our learning community,” says Tyler Jones (‘24), a member of Kline-Gabel's CAL Student Inclusion Committee, which invites students to share ideas and actively participate in shaping their JMU experience. “This includes professors, students, and staff from different communities. You can't attract one group without the other.”
Kline-Gabel coordinates a timeline of welcoming and belonging events for new CAL faculty, including panels related to research and teaching, social gatherings, and opportunities for broader reflection. She also works closely with individual student groups, such as the Latinx Student Alliance and, through connections in the Latinx community beyond Harrisonburg, has brought unique opportunities to current and prospective JMU students.
Last April, she accompanied twelve Latinx students from JMU and Harrisonburg High School to the White House in Washington, D.C., for a screening of “The Long Game,” a film about an underdog high school golf team in Texas that won the 1957 state championship. Sol Ortega, White House Senior Advisor for Public Engagement, organized the event to elevate Latino/a/x voices and stories, highlighting the important contributions by the Hispanic community to our state and nation.
A student’s success in higher education depends on access and preparation, and KlineGabel consistently works to broaden the horizons for prospective students. The Virginia Latino Higher Education Network, of which
Kline-Gabel is president, offers scholarships and college-access programs and is the only statewide non-profit dedicated to helping Latinx students achieve their academic goals. Here at JMU, her summer Latinx Leadership Academy helps rising high school sophomores and juniors develop leadership and academic skills.
Even just starting the college-access conversation early, using accessible language and confronting the challenges that specific communities face, can make a huge difference in an individual student's life. Kline-Gabel's Affordable Homes & Communities (AHC) campus visit brought first-generation middle school and high school students from underrepresented communities to JMU to start those conversations. “I loved visiting JMU, it was so pretty and students seemed really happy here,” shared one participating AHC student. “After the visit, I got to share with my parents that I want to go to college. We've been talking more about it and before I wouldn't have felt comfortable bringing the conversation up with them.”
CAL and JMU remain committed to inclusive excellence, and Kline-Gabel will continue to raise student and faculty voices and cultivate a community in which everyone belongs.
Kline-Gabel with students attending the film screening in Washington, D.C.
Dolores Huerta speaking at the 2023 SOMOS conference.
Local Harrisonburg students at a drive-thru event celebrating their acceptance to JMU.
Writing the Fantastic, Scholastic, and Real
blending teaching and scholarship into a single endeavor.” While JMU recently achieved the new Carnegie Classification of R2 Doctoral University, our faculty remain dedicated to the close student engagement that has been the hallmark of the JMU experience. The students’ direct involvement in the teacher-scholar’s research both enhances student learning and enriches the research itself. Colleagues and college leadership alike appreciate how Samatar embodies that model. “[Samatar] represents the best of what we do in English,” says Becky Childs, and Academic Unit Head. “[She is both] creative and scholarly, inclusive in her work and with an eye towards ways that she can bring her expertise to students.”
Monster Portraits
Writing and the Writing Life
By the time Sofia Samatar, Associate Professor of English at JMU, published her award-winning travel memoir (2022), she was already a well-established, multi-genre creative writer. In 2018, she collaborated with her illustrator brother to produce the fantastical , an investigation of “the monstrous through words and images.” Most recently, her non-fiction work launched in August 2024.
Opacities: On
With these well-deserved accolades in the public sphere, Samatar is simultaneously an engaged teacher and productive scholar of post-colonial and transnational literatures at JMU. In 2024, she earned the Madison Scholar Award, CAL’s most prestigious honor for research, scholarship, and creative activities. She regularly teaches courses on Black studies, Arabic literature, world literature, and creative writing, and serves on the African, African American, and Diaspora Studies Center Advisory Board. In short, Samatar exemplifies the teacher-scholar model that CAL values.
In CAL, the term “teacher-scholar” describes faculty who are “actively engaged in advancing their fields of inquiry and are committed to
Migration to the North
For Samatar, who has taught at JMU for almost ten years, directing her energy toward teaching and research helps balance the creative pressures. She knows many people who make a living just by writing, but teaching helps stimulate her creativity and prevent writer’s block while she’s under contract. “Every time I teach a book — I have taught one book, by Sudanese novelist Tayeb Salih for ten years and been thinking about it for twenty — something new comes out of it. A student will notice something that I've never noticed before. That’s the amazing thing about literature.” The students’ unique perspectives suggest new avenues for Samatar’s future explorations.
Season of
Similarly, students often turn to Samatar for help exploring their own futures. When they ask how to jumpstart their own writing careers, she finds herself describing her own career path. She always knew she'd be a teacher in some capacity, but the line to her current role was far from straight. Samatar earned her bachelor's degree in English at Goshen College before pursuing her master’s degree at the University of Wisconsin in African Languages and Literature. She then traveled abroad, teaching English to non-native speakers for three years in Sudan and nine years in Egypt before returning to Wisconsin to complete her Ph.D. in the same field. In the face of overwhelming pressure to land the perfect career right after graduation, Samatar assures students that there are many equally valid and
The White Mosque
life-changing, if meandering, paths to success. “A lot of times people try one way, fail, and think there’s no moving forward, but that is so untrue,” she says.
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain
Samatar’s global experiences contribute to her fascination with speculative fiction, an umbrella genre that describes any departure from realism — including the fantastic, supernatural, or futuristic. Her most recent novella, (2024), is both science fiction and a campus novel, set in a university in outer space. Apart from being fun to read, the dialogue between the familiar and the fanciful in such fiction allows writers and readers to see the “real” world differently, to identify problems and imagine alternate possibilities.
Engaging such other worlds in fiction no doubt helps Samatar and her students bring fresh and creative perspectives to the world. By harnessing the possibilities, from the academic to the personal, teachers like Samatar help students imagine their own promising futures.
2024 CAL Award Recipients
Carl Harter Distinguished Teacher Award
Chen Guo, SMAD
Madison Scholar Award
Sofia Samatar, English
Distinguished Service Award
Roger Soenksen, SMAD
Staff Recognition Award
Rebecca White, History
2024 University Award Recipients from CAL
President’s Purple Star Award for Embracing Innovation and Change
Rita Poteyeva, Justice Studies
Provost Award For Excellence in Outreach and Engagement
Carlos Alemán, SCOM
Provost Award For Excellence in Research and Scholarship
Ja’La Wourman, WRTC
Distinguished Teacher Award for General Education
Martin Cohen, Political Science
Uncovering History: Archaeology at JMU
Dennis Blanton, Associate Professor of Anthropology, made his first significant archaeological find at 13 years old: he found a stone spear point dating to the last Ice Age — more than 13,000 years ago — at a logging site in South Carolina. His love for archaeology has been constant ever since.
Blanton found his latest niche in archaeology researching the impact of the first colonizing Europeans on indigenous societies, trying to fill in a sketchy Spanish colonial history about conquistador Hernando De Soto. Most of his fieldwork takes place at the Deer Run Plantation in southwestern Georgia, where he hosts a field school for JMU students. Students spend five to six weeks camping in tents and working long days as archaeologists, gaining the practical experience of searching, excavating, and cataloguing.
Blanton devoted 10 years working on the property, with colleagues and students armed with walkie-talkies and scattered across a full kilometer of land, before they found the first real piece of evidence that the conquistadors had been there. Blanton was busy working on a map when a student called him over the crackling radio: “You need to see this — I think I found something.” In that student’s hand was a glass bead made in Italy 500 years ago, brought by the Spanish to trade with the Native Americans. That bead was the first in a series of finds by Blanton and his students over the years.
“There’s much about the human story that only archaeology can reveal,” says Blanton, and archaeologists have a tremendous responsibility to tell that story and expand our knowledge of the past. Blanton receives several calls a year
asking him to lend his expertise, but his own projects and classes limit the time he can offer.
Sometimes, though, the stars align between a local project, his experience, and his classes. Now a resident of Staunton, VA, Blanton recently joined the Historic Staunton Foundation’s (HSF) initiative to preserve and restore the Cabell Log House, a two-room dwelling built by a freed African American, Edmund Cabell, shortly after the Civil War. Blanton is working with the HSF to plan an archaeological study that will likely take several years. “Any occasion where I’m invited to aid a local entity, that involves students, I’m all about it.” said Blanton. “It's an opportunity for us at JMU. The site becomes a living laboratory for our students and there was so much excitement about it.”
When the HSF secured the building, enthusiasm was high. “What are we waiting on?” exclaimed HSF director Frank Strassler. “Aren’t you going to go out there and dig some holes?” Blanton promptly brought students to the site, where they found hundreds of artifacts in a single day. This fall, he is incorporating the site into one of his courses where students can continue to uncover the house’s rich legacy and “to serve [both the HSF and] the local African American community. To make sure that history is represented, fairly and more prominently, in the valley. We want to do our part to help them fill out that story.”
Blanton’s work is finding pieces of the puzzle that is human history. “My dream is, more than anything, to make sure that whatever it is I choose to do is done well and respected and will reflect well on everyone concerned,” he said. “And also, that I can make a difference, in some meaningful way.”
Student Success
The JMU Speech Team placed 16th in the nation at the American Forensic Association’s National Speech Tournament at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, in Spring 2024. This is the JMU team’s first Top-20 placement since 2011, and its second highest placement since at least 2000.
For the first time ever, two JMU students — Lexie Burns ('24) and Arina Drovetskaya ('24) — earned spots on the 2024 All-American Team. “We’re thrilled with how well our team performed last season while representing JMU at the national level,” says Director Mallory Marsh, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies. “And we’re excited to start a new season with many returning members alongside lots of new students!”
2024 Boren Scholars
Kriste Lipold (‘24), Religion
Nicole Capaldo (‘24), International Affairs
Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange
Courtney McConico (‘23), Modern Foreign Languages (German)
Rangel Summer Enrichment Program
Isabella Santos (‘25), Political Science and International Affairs
2024 Fulbright Scholars
Taylor Nauflett (‘24), International Affairs
Christopher Handwerk (‘20, ‘23M), BA International Affairs, MA European Union Policy Studies
2024 Gilman Scholars
Michelle Johnson (‘26), Sociology
Isabella Santos (‘25), Political Science and International Affairs
Class of 2023 Career Outcomes
Tackling Global Diplomacy
The new College of Arts and Letters Diplomacy & Defense Lab, under the leadership of Bernie Kaussler, Professor of Political Science, enables students to apply classroom learning to realworld problems. The lab partners with donors and government agencies, such as the U.S. Department of State, to support student learning and professional development. It also opens opportunities for faculty research and collaboration with government agencies.
Kaussler began this kind of work in 2017, teamteaching JMU’s Hacking for Diplomacy and Hacking for Defense courses. Stanford University originally designed the innovative courses to connect graduate students with U.S. government and armed-forces work. JMU is the first university to offer them at the undergraduate level. Teams of students from across campus respond to real foreign-policy and nationalsecurity challenges by conducting in-depth research, interviewing professionals from a variety of disciplines and sectors, and using design methods to prototype solutions that they test and revise throughout the semester.
“Coming in as undergraduate students, it was absolutely intimidating, yet we consistently found our ideas respected and valued,” shared Ai Vy Le (‘25). “Our sponsors not only collaborated with us but also implemented our suggestions in real time, fostering a genuine, professional, collective effort. This experience honed my professional skills and boosted my confidence.”
In November 2023, two Hacking teams traveled to San José, Costa Rica to conduct research on security challenges at U.S. embassies. With invitations from the U.S. Department of State and generous funding from the Common Mission Project and the global advisory company BMNT, four JMU students conducted field work on embassy security. They talked through their ideas with Marines and other diplomatic security staff and then refined their proposals based on what they were learning on the ground. Following their trip, Mike Flores, Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Mission to Costa Rica, reflected: “I was so impressed by the group of
students who visited Costa Rica last week. They are bright, energetic, and have a high level of emotional intelligence. These students reaffirm my confidence in the future of our institution and the country.” Mike Flores traveled all the way from Costa Rica to Washington, D.C., to attend the end-of-semester final presentations.
To increase access to these learning opportunities, Kaussler worked with the Office for Global Partnerships at the U.S. Department of State to become part of the Diplomacy Lab network in 2023. Through its Diplomacy Lab, the U.S. Department of State “course-sources” foreign affairs-related research by leveraging the expertise and enthusiasm of students and faculty from universities nationwide. The State Department benefits from working with students in a range of disciplines and those students contribute directly to foreign policymaking.
Kaussler integrated several projects into his Fall 2023 senior seminar course to address a range of problems, including helping the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu reach Americans during emergencies, presenting a report to Congress on Chinese intimidation and censorship efforts, and
Students in Costa Rica with Department of State employees.
developing a cyberwarfare curriculum for the Foreign Service Institute. For Fall 2024, faculty in Philosophy and Religion, Communication Studies, and Political Science successfully bid to lead projects that involve measuring China’s influence in Central Europe, protecting environmental defenders from violence, examining electoral systems in the Americas, and advancing mental health support in developing countries.
With a gift from a Virginia-based foundation, the CAL Diplomacy & Defense Lab has extended its work to local high school students by hosting the inaugural Madison Diplomacy Challenge in May 2024. Thirty-five students from Harrisonburg High School participated in a crisis simulation in which they represented various countries and engaged in diplomatic negotiations. Through such experiences, students develop strategic thinking, conflict resolution, and civic-leadership skills.
Kaussler is quick to note the widespread benefit of these initiatives. “These high-impact learning opportunities are transformative for the students and the federal government,” says Kaussler. “They are rewarding for everyone involved,
Kaussler introducing students before their presentations to the U.S. Department of State.
Advancing Youth Justice at JMU and Beyond
“I am now able to use my voice to give a voice to those who feel silenced,” says Makaela Parker (‘25), a remarkable Justice Studies major and Youth Justice minor. Though she self-identifies as a shy person, she has grown at JMU, seizing opportunities to represent and lead her peers.
Parker sits on the college-wide Student Advisory Council, where students help shape professional development opportunities, and is one of three student representatives to CAL's Alumni Advisory Board. As a member of Women of Color, a student organization for which she serves as co-Public Relations Chair, she found a safe space to identify with women who have had similar collegiate experiences and to become, she says, “comfortable in my skin as a Black woman.”
Deep down, Parker “love[s] helping people and want[s] to make their lives better.” She grew up without much guidance about mental health and found being a first-generation college student difficult emotionally and financially. Her pattern of “figuring out things and struggling but getting back up,” always with her family’s unflagging support and pride, inspired her to channel that struggle into helping others. After first majoring in Psychology, she found the Youth Justice minor and, eventually, the Justice Studies major, which gave her concrete ways to give others the kind of help she didn’t get as a child. “Recognizing that not everyone gets the opportunity to do the things that I have done makes me even more
grateful to accept everything that is thrown at me,” says Parker.
Parker put her values into action when she became one of the Innovation Center for Youth Justice’s (ICYJ) first summer interns. As a center dedicated to youth justice system reform, JMU’s ICYJ devotes substantial effort to cultivating the next generation of youth justice professionals. Under the leadership of director Rita Poteyeva, Associate Professor of Justice Studies, the ICYJ developed their Summer Internship program in partnership with the Robert F. Kennedy National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice, drawing on that center’s substantial “practice network” of youth justice practitioners nationwide working in law, juvenile justice, child welfare, law enforcement, behavioral health, and education.
The first cohort of interns spread across four states — Virginia, Illinois, Nebraska, and Washington — and experienced all aspects of a functioning juvenile justice system. Students shadowed juvenile court intake staff, probation officers, and service providers; visited detention
Parker and the King County Juvenile Court Services team. Left to right: Paul Daniels, Aaron Parker (MSW, MHP), and Robert Gant (LMHC, EMHS).
facilities; and sat in on trial hearings and treatment assessments.
Parker interned in Seattle, WA — farther than she had ever traveled before — at the King County Juvenile Court Services under director Paul Daniels, whom Parker calls “truly a ray of sunshine.” His eagerness to teach made her eager to learn, and his team and everyone within Juvenile Court Services welcomed her. Daniels remarks that Parker “wasted no time building relationships, learning from a great variety of King County stakeholders and partners, and work[ing] directly with a multitude of programs.”
Daniels describes Parker as “brilliant, curious, insightful, [someone who] will certainly lead an impactful career wherever she chooses to apply her talents,” and she has already begun to have that impact at JMU. ICYJ interns keep a daily journal and write a major research paper bridging academic research and their on-the-ground observations. Parker brought back a treasure trove of meticulously documented practical observations, comparisons, and research insights to share with fellow Youth Justice minors. “ICYJ could not be more proud of Makaela and how well she represented JMU while completing her
internship in Washington,” says Poteyeva. The center invited Parker to present her high-caliber research paper, “Issues of adolescent developmental & mental health in the context of juvenile justice interventions," at the ICYJ Spring '24 Research and Practice Symposium.
Sixteen JMU students have completed internships through ICYJ’s program from majors including Education, Justice Studies, Political Science, Psychology, Social Work, and Sociology. For Parker, it was “the most beneficial experience I have had in my JMU career. It allowed me to grow as an individual and a student, and to understand the role I want to have in a workplace.”
During her senior year, she will serve as an Outreach and Engagement Student Assistant in JMU’s Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, assisting with community engagement and outreach efforts, including events for underrepresented communities. After graduating, Parker plans to pursue a Master of Education in School Counseling to continue working with youth. As the ICYJ internship program grows, so too will the impact of these JMU students on the communities they serve.
‘JMU Gave Me a Springboard’
A
Profession of Service
Malcolm Taylor (‘82), member of the College of Arts and Letters Alumni Advisory Board and of The Ole School Alumni Scholarship Group (OSASG), traces the roots of his meaningful professional and personal experiences to his start at JMU: “JMU gave me a springboard into what turned out to be a wildly successful career beyond what I ever imagined.”
After majoring at JMU in Social Work with a focus on criminal justice, Taylor spent the next forty years holding increasingly important roles in public safety across Virginia, eventually overseeing probation parole for one third of the state. He retired in 2019 as the CEO of Virginia Correctional Enterprises (VCE, established by the General Assembly in 1934), the first African American to hold the role. VCE is responsible for manufacturing everything from false teeth to furniture, and offering services such as printing, embroidery, and even vehicle conversions for law enforcement agencies. This $50 million, selfsustaining agency provides critical training for incarcerated men and women to prepare them for employment upon return to society.
Fortuitous connections and a willingness to work hard shaped his trajectory, beginning with his start at JMU. A talented high school track-andfield athlete, Taylor was touring campus one day and happened to run into JMU’s then-track coach, Ed Witt, who asked about his college plans.
From that chance encounter, Taylor received a full ride. “God looks after fools and babies, and I wasn’t a baby at the time.” He felt conflicted about his motives for initially majoring in accounting; eventually his interests in the legal profession and the courts led him to Social Work. “Some people would say that was a foolish move, but it was a faith move. I wanted to give back to other people, to help people in some way.”
After interning as a probation officer for the Staunton Court System and enduring a prolonged job search, he took positions working with juveniles: first as a counselor at a residential home for boys with behavioral trouble, Boys Home, then as a case worker and assistant director at Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Those positions showed Taylor the unique contribution he could make and planted the seed for his longstanding commitment to mentoring. At Boys Home, he helped the residents with planning, schoolwork, and behavioral strategies, and established a running club, knowing the value of physical activity especially for young people. “They had never had a minority staff member before,” Taylor recalls, so “a professional person that looked like me was really different. And it was great because I was able to engage with boys of all races.” At Big Brothers Big Sisters, he learned the importance of fundraising and community engagement for enabling values-based programs to exist and thrive.
An OSASG Alumni Awards banquet, with OSASG officers and some of their mentee students.
As Taylor puts it, “hustling for resources — it’s been the story of my life.”
His industriousness repeatedly brought opportunities, some of which he took despite not especially wanting them. He once applied for a new, undefined senior probation officer role solely because hiring from the inside would save another colleague from being bumped. “When asked why I wanted the job,” he says, “my answer was a Malcolm answer: nobody knows what this job is because it’s never existed. But I have a vision for how this position could be an asset to our organization and to the community.”
That vision has always reflected the best interests of the whole team and organization. “I don’t know everything, but I know how to work with anybody,” he says. “As a leader, I didn’t do anything important other than allow people to use their skills.” His service- and relationshiporientated approach to leadership sustained him while working in the important but difficult public safety field. When things got tough and he was tested, he “refused to let them see [him] sweat.” Instead, he would respond, “We can make that happen. What else do you need?”
A Life of Giving
Taylor continues to nurture the passions and interests that ground his humility and adaptability. He is still a runner and has been a minister since 2003. His side gig doing television voiceovers stemmed from radio work begun at JMU’s WMRA. That led to an early-morning radio show in Roanoke that he hosted in the mid1980s, long before such shows were common, with his friend and fellow-JMU graduate, Stan Tompkins (‘82). Taylor counts Stan and his sister, Deborah Tompkins Johnson (‘78) — former multiterm JMU Board of Visitor member, and Vice Rector until 2023 — among his dear friends. “It’s always about relationships, and that’s been the key to our success. It’s the reason that we stay together because all of us met in the late 1970s or 1980s and we are a family. We’ve been through life together.”
As one of 232 African American students in a population of 8,000, Taylor cherished finding
these close friends. “I got a great education at JMU, but I got something even bigger,” he says. “I got a whole extended family that will be with me until I’m dead and beyond. It’s a big deal.” Together they wanted to help students coming along behind them, “when the next Malcolm Taylor shows up not understanding that you gotta pay for college.”
Charles May (‘83) and 11 other Dukes founded the non-profit organization Ole School to support African American recruitment and retention efforts. Serving as vice-president of OSASG, Taylor drew on his relationships and experiences with mentoring, fundraising, and creating something new to address a demonstrated need. As the enthusiastic OSASG team grew, the group expanded its scope to support all underrepresented students or, as Taylor says, “anyone who requests it.” OSASG currently works with a cohort of about seventyfive students.
Their efforts have also evolved from recruiting and offering scholarships — two at first, now up to fourteen — to mentoring current students and, recently, helping them find internships and/or full-time employment upon graduation. The group has grown increasingly integrated into JMU’s overarching, mission-driven efforts to diversify and support the student body.
Taylor recognizes that each person has something different to offer; he values equally the three T’s of giving: time, talent, and treasure. Not everyone can give financially, but they might offer an internship or job, mentorship, or a unique story. “It doesn’t have to be a lot. Even if what you have is small,” he advises, “make a contribution. Give what you can.”
Wide-ranging as Taylor’s support is, his heart ultimately lies with the students, who have many options with a liberal arts degree. He earned his degree to do one type of thing and ended up growing into a bi-level administrator helping run the state system for public safety. To students, he says: “Keep your eyes open and your head on a swivel because opportunities will come because of this education and degree that you’re going to receive.”
Recognizing Excellence in Administration
Rebecca White, Administrative Specialist in the History department, has found that her professional path aligns with her educational and personal goals. “I’ve always loved history and research and being able to help people, “she says. “I like working with our students and people across campus.” White is a standout in her administrative role and, last spring, was nominated by several colleagues for the CAL Staff Advisory Committee’s Distinguished Staff Award, which recognizes a colleague who excels in teamwork, customer service, creativity, and innovation.
White received the award this May. Nominators praised her ability to perform both public-facing and detail-oriented work effectively and simultaneously. When responding to specific requests from individuals in the community, she treats each person with dignity and respect. At the same time, she executes multiple, complex tasks — including completing essential documentation and financial processes — with the highest accuracy and precision.
White came to the History department at the prompting of a new friend, Peggy Smith, then the Administrative Assistant in History. White had been working as a Deputy Clerk of Court but found a part-time position at JMU in the Music Library. Though a big change, the job offered better hours and the chance to take JMU courses as part of the university's Tuition Waiver Program to support employee professional development. After "the trip of a lifetime" to Italy with her husband in 2017, she was all in to learn Italian.
After a few years working at JMU, White began pursuing a bachelor’s degree in individualized study through JMU’s Adult Degree Program (ADP) in the School of Professional and Continuing Education. The ADP is an online undergraduate degree-completion program that allows students to design a personalized interdisciplinary path. White chose a dual focus on Communications and Italian Studies. With a wide grin she explains, “I want to return [to Italy] with a better understanding of the country and be able to do my own research.”
Meanwhile she found a full-time job in the College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA), where she met Peggy Smith while working a few CVPA events. “We hit it off really well,” White recalls, “and she told me there was an opening [for a fiscal technician] in the History department.” To her new friend’s delight, Rebecca was hired for that job.
Her first day in the new job in March 2020, however, turned out to be JMU’s last day inperson before the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down. Despite the disappointing start to the job — against a backdrop of collective uncertainty and fear — the experience cemented her friendship with Smith. White set up her home office and communicated with Smith virtually and, occasionally, in person to learn more about the department and her new tasks. “We really bonded during [the lockdown] and found we worked well together,” recalls Rebecca.
In September 2023, Peggy Smith passed away unexpectedly. Suddenly, and for six months
Assistant Director of Debate within the School of Communication Studies. Butt earned his Ph.D. from Wayne State University, and his research focuses on argumentation and debate, policy analysis, and debate pedagogy.
Meghalee Das
Assistant Professor of Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication. Das earned her Ph.D. from Texas Tech University, and her research focuses on intercultural technical communication, user experience, and online instructional design.
Languages and Cultures. Chalupa earned her Ph.D. from The Ohio State University, and her research focuses on second language pedagogy, assessment, and international GTA Training.
Damon Dillman
Lecturer in the School of Media Arts & Design. Dillman earned his MA from Syracuse University in Broadcast Journalism, and brings expertise in video production, news/sports writing and reporting, and sports broadcast production.
Nancy El Gendy
Assistant Professor of Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication. El Gendy earned her Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma, and her research focuses on communication technologies, instructional design, and intercultural communication.
Michelle Lisa Herman
Assistant Professor in the School of Media Arts & Design. Herman earned her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, and her research focuses on user experience, interactive design, and new media art.
Matt Leech
Brentus Green
Assistant Professor of Political Science. Green earned his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University, and his research focuses on Black and racial politics, Black political thought, and American political development.
Jalia Joseph
Assistant Professor of Sociology. Joseph earned their Ph.D. at Texas A&M University, and their research focuses on race and gender, social movements, emotions, and collective memory.
Jason Mollica
Lecturer in the School of Media Arts & Design. Leech earned his BFA from JMU in Printmaking, and brings expertise in creative direction, brand identity, and graphic design.
Christopher Price
Assistant Professor of Political Science. Price earned his Ph.D. from Yale University, and his research focuses on how and why armed groups use violence during civil conflict, how experiences of violence during war alter group identities like ethnicity, and how best to end armed conflict.
Lecturer in the School of Communication Studies. Mollica holds an MS from Purdue University, and his research focuses on strategic communication, sports public relations, and social and digital media analysis.
Breanne Weber
Assistant Professor of English. Weber earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, and her research focuses on digital and environmental humanities and early modern English book history.
Saying Farewell
Dr. Thomas Adajian, Rustin Greene,
Our best wishes to those who retired this year: Philosophy
School of Media Arts & Design
John Hodges, School of Media Arts & Design
Photo credit: E. Brady Robinson.
Remembering Those We’ve Lost
The College of Arts and Letters is a community. Though we work together as a team, we also value the tremendous impact of each individual. And when we lose a member of that team, that loss is profound. Last September, we lost two precious members of our community.
Peggy Smith served as the Program Support Technologist in the Department of History since 2012. In 2020, she earned the CAL Outstanding Staff Award for her exceptional contributions to the History department and the college.
Known for her work ethic and constant good cheer, Peggy was a vital colleague to the faculty in the department and a beloved mentor to the History students. She served as co-chair and chair of the CAL Staff Advisory Committee, as a member of the Academic Affairs Administrative Staff Advisory Council, and as an active member of the Central Virginia Branch (Mid-Atlantic Region) of the International Association of Administrative Professionals. She also served on the Employee Advisory Committee.
To recognize and celebrate her legacy, we created the Peggy Smith Professional Development Fund. The fund will be used to defray costs related to CAL staff professional development, such as taking certification courses, traveling to conferences, and more. This fund is inspired by Peggy’s generosity, her endless intellectual curiosity, and her passion to learn more and to be better.
The fund currently has over $5000 in donations, and we look forward to growing that amount so that we can encourage our staff to pursue their goals and continue to honor Peggy’s life and spirit.
Mark Hawthorne served JMU for 48 years and retired in 2021. He earned the rank of full professor of English at age 35 and was the head of the department from 1974-1981, one of the youngest department chairs in JMU history.
As technology advanced in the 1990s, Mark evolved with it, reinventing himself as a teacher, scholar, and colleague by learning operating systems, computer languages, and software. In the early 1980s, Mark was perhaps the only English faculty member with an office computer, and his goal was to lead faculty and students into the computer age. Reflecting this expansion, he became a Professor of Technical and Scientific Communication in 1999.
The accumulated impact of his teaching activities — including the number and variety of courses taught, workshops and student training sessions led, number of advisees, number of honors theses, and master’s theses — cannot really be estimated. Safe to say he touched and improved the lives of thousands of students.
Intellectually curious, always energetic, often smiling, Mark thrived through several transformative periods at JMU and across higher education. He never seemed to tire or grow bored with any of it. He continually re-invented himself and his work, challenging himself and others to grow and improve, the better to meet student needs in an ever-accelerating world. All the while, he helped to nurture and support the careers of a great many faculty members.
Mark was a dear member of the WRTC family and JMU community, and we mourn his loss deeply.
