Artes Liberales- Spring 2011

ARTES LIBERALES

Spring 2011 Volume IV, No. II

The Newsletter of the Liberal Arts

A&S DEAN’S LETTER

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Greetings, This will be my last letter in Artes Liberales, and I want to begin with a note of thanks.

Over the decade I have spent as dean of the School of Arts & Sciences, I have been given the privilege of working closely with some of this country’s most interesting and talented minds—Richmond’s Arts and Sciences faculty, staff, and students—and my life has been forever enriched for it.

As I look back over the time I’ve spent as dean, I am most proud of the investments we have made to enhance student learning.

When we shifted from a 3:3 faculty course load [faculty taught three courses in the fall and three more in the spring] to a 3:2 load, we always said we were changing the course load, not the teaching load.

Reducing the faculty’s course load meant that professors gained more time to teach in new and innovative ways.

Mentoring student research (such as the opportunities we

Andrew F. Newcomb Dean

Dona Hickey Senior Associate Dean, Faculty Development

Kathy Hoke Associate Dean, Research Support

Scott Johnson Associate Dean and Director, Academic Advising Resource Center

Joseph Boehman

Associate Dean Dean of Richmond College

Juliette L. Landphair Associate Dean Dean of Westhampton College

outline on page 10) is exactly the type of innovative ‘teaching’ we were talking about. Hiring additional faculty; supporting an increase in interdisciplinary programs such as the Integrated Quantitative Science (IQS) course; and ushering in new majors such as dance, film studies, geography, and Middle East studies were all strategic decisions that improved learning opportunities for all students at UR, not only those in the School of Arts & Sciences.

I truly look forward to re-entering the classroom and eagerly await what the next decade will bring for the School of Arts & Sciences and the University of Richmond.

I am completely confident that the next dean will make further progress toward the goal of making the University of Richmond one of the premier places to study the liberal arts.

Andrew F. Newcomb Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences University of Richmond

Artes Liberales is published twice a year for faculty, staff, students, and friends of the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Richmond.

Electronic issues of Artes Liberales are available online at as.richmond.edu.

Director of Communications Rachel Beanland Communications Coordinator Catherine Amos Web and Graphic Design Coordinator Kirsten A. McKinney Send story ideas or comments to catherine.amos@richmond.edu.

Our Mission To explore the liberal arts through intellectual inquiry, shared investigation, and creativity, thereby fostering a community whose members pursue knowledge for its intrinsic value and its contributions to professions, society, and the world.

Cover Photo Photo of Chilean sunset by Julie Zeller, ’11. See story on page 4.

Throughout the publication, this symbol indicates that additional content is available.

A&S FACULTY TEACHING

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The rise of Arabic Studies As American interest in Middle Eastern culture has grown, so have the University of Richmond’s offerings in Arabic studies.

Housed in the new Carole Weinstein International Center as part of the Department of Modern Literatures and Cultures (MLC), the Arabic studies program serves about 60–70 students, offering classes, a new minor, study abroad opportunities, and cultural enrichment events throughout the year.

The first Arabic classes were taught at UR in the fall of 2006, and since then the program has grown to include three levels of language instruction and a course called Modern and Social Movements in Middle Eastern Literature. In 2008 the program received a Title VI grant to develop a minor in Arabic studies.

To meet the demand for more Arabic courses, program director Martin SulzerReichel welcomed associate professor Walid Hamarneh to campus in the fall of 2010. The two men anticipate launching a full-fledged major in Arabic studies in the next two years.

Enrollment in introductory and intermediate sections of Arabic has already doubled and the department has hired another full-time Arabic lecturer who will begin teaching in the fall of 2011.

The University of Richmond has paid attention to the growing trend in North

America to pursue Arabic studies, Hamarneh said.

“The Middle East is an important area of the world for America,” with the United States’ involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with its dependence on oil, he added.

“It’s all but natural that this would be in the interest of students.”

Sulzer-Reichel, who also directs the department’s German program, said teaching Arabic differs from other languages because there is a greater cultural divide between the United States and Middle Eastern countries than between the U.S. and Europe or South America.

“One of the main goals of the program is to open our students’ eyes to the world of the Middle East,” Sulzer-Reichel said, “and purely teaching the language cannot achieve this goal—much less, anyway, than in European language courses.”

Because of that, the department is adding more content courses, such as literature, culture, history of ideas, and cinema. Hamarneh also works with the Middle Eastern Club to schedule movie screenings and discussions, as well as the annual Arabian Night cultural festival with music, poetry, and food.

“We’re working to develop the program to satisfy the needs of the students,” Hamarneh said. g

STUDENT RESEARCH

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A study abroad trip to Chile turns into a research project on the recovery of cultural culinary traditions When Julia Zeller, ’11, submitted her senior thesis proposal, nowhere in the document did it say anything about homemade macaroni & cheese. But in the tiny pueblo of Putre, Chile, located12,000 feet above sea level, the anthropology major from Delaware found herself improvising for ingredients, all in the name of research.

Zeller declared an anthropology major late in her college career and had to make up for lost time.

“I was an international studies major but I felt really unfocused. Anthropology was where my interests were. When I decided to declare the major, I had to take a bunch of courses all at once to fit everything in before graduation,” said Zeller.

Zeller was committed to her new major but taking all those classes meant that she had to remain on campus while many of her friends enjoyed a semester or year studying abroad during their junior year.

Undeterred, Zeller began making plans to study abroad her senior year—a time when most students are back on campus and busy completing senior theses, applying to graduate school, and looking for jobs.

Zeller had to get creative. Since she

would also be writing a senior thesis, she needed a study abroad opportunity that would allow her to enjoy living and studying in a foreign country while at the same time providing her with some rich source material for her thesis.

She found a program in Chile that gave her exactly what she needed: seven weeks of intensive classroom instruction in Spanish—about Chile’s history, culture, and people—a two-week trip to the Northern region of Chile, and then the freedom to spend the rest of her semester performing undergraduate research independently. She and her cohorts met back in Vina del Mar, near Santiago, at the end of the semester to share their findings with each other.

“I’ve always been intrigued by indigenous groups. I wanted to study if and how some of Chile’s indigenous groups have maintained their cultural identities,” Zeller said.

Once in Chile, however, it didn’t take her long to realize that she’d have to shift gears.

“I realized that, in an attempt to focus on modernization and conforming to a national Chilean identity, local communities had lost many of their cultural practices.

club’s members and invited her to attend meetings. Zeller found that once she got one person talking about a particular dish, everyone wanted to share.

“I’d ask them about a certain dish, something they used to make, and everyone would start talking over each other. Everyone had different opinions on how to make the dish, and no one could agree on the ingredients,” Zeller said.

Zeller recorded the interviews she conducted and took detailed notes. Back at UR, she knew she’d be able to utilize more resources to do background research on the dishes the abuelitos discussed.

Before she left Putre, Zeller wanted to make a meal of her own, something to express her thanks to the abuelitos who had shared their culinary memories with her during her stay.

“Their culture is based on reciprocity, so it meant a lot to me to share something with them,” Zeller said.

Homemade macaroni and cheese calls for fairly straight-forward ingredients that Zeller thought she could find in Arica, Putre’s closest city, which is located approximately three hours downhill.

Zeller said that Putre and its abuelitos helped her see what fieldwork at the Ph.D. level would be like, always asking questions of people. And back at UR, she’s got no shortage of material about which to write.

“People in Putre have always made their living by working in the fields,” Zeller said. “If younger generations would rather immigrate to cities to get educations and jobs, this affects how willing the next generation will be to pursue certain cultural practices over the long term. I don’t have a lot of hope that Putre will recover its traditional foods.”

Zeller may, in fact, have contributed to the problem—her mac & cheese was so popular with the abuelitos, there’s a chance tourists will see it on Putre’s menus before too long. g

STUDENT RESEARCH

There are recovery groups working very hard to go into these communities and help them recuperate past practices—traditional stories and dances and music and food. I wanted to focus on one village, Putre, and see for myself how successful these recovery attempts have been.”

Because of her time constraints, Zeller narrowed her topic and focused only on Putre’s traditional food. Putre has seen an increase in tourism in recent years.

Restaurants cater to the tourists and the “traditional” fare they serve up is getting less traditional by the day.

For instance, quinoa, once a staple grain that was added to stews and served regularly as a side dish, has fallen out of favor with many Chileans. After the Spanish invaded Chile, quinoa began to be viewed as a food of the indigenous people, who soon became marginalized as a lower class. Ironically, quinoa has soared to popularity in the U.S. where Americans, interested in it for its health benefits, buy it by the pound at organic grocery stores.

“Quinoa used to be cultivated in Putre.

Now only three people cultivate it and not at high enough levels to sell it,” Zeller said. “A recovery group called Kimsakalko has come into the village and brought quinoa with them. They’re showing the villagers how to cook traditional meals with it, and they’re also inventing new dishes that call for it and other traditional ingredients.”

Another Chilean food that’s seen a dip in popularity is llaita, a freshwater algae that is used to make a traditional vegetarian casserole dish, especially important during holy week when villagers can’t eat meat.

To find out about customary foods like quinoa and llaita, Zeller looked no further than Putre’s abuelitos club, which literally translates to mean “little grandparents.” The community’s elderly get together regularly for meetings and socials. The president of the club put her in touch with many of the

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A&S FACULTY RESEARCH

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Photo by Zee M Kane/Creative Commons

English professors analyze literary work of President Obama The Obama Effect, released in October 2010, offers an interdisciplinary analysis of President Barack Obama’s historic 2008 presidential bid and the cultural effect his election has had on America.

The only chapters that focus on the president’s literary accomplishments are contributed by two University of Richmond faculty, English professors Suzanne Jones and Bertram Ashe.

Both Ashe and Jones offer a literary analysis of the President’s most famous nonfiction work, his memoir, Dreams From My Father, which Ashe calls “a work of art.”

Ashe says he was drawn to study the book not only because of the rising political status of its subject and author, but because its themes overlap perfectly with the topic of a book he’s writing—on something he calls the post-soul aesthetic.

“The post-soul aesthetic is a post-civil rights movement era that surfaced in the mid-1980s with the release of [Spike Lee’s movie] She’s Gotta Have It,” Ashe said. “It offered a look at blackness that was far less reverential, and far more irreverent in terms of how we talk about and deal with racial issues.”

Ashe says the movement opened the door to play with the definition of ‘blackness.’ He says that the president’s struggle to determine his own racial identity fits perfectly into the movement.

“A number of books came out right around that time about African Americans who grew up biracial or black, but in bicultural situations,” he said. “They had a foot in the black world and a foot in the white world, and the experience was seen as transformative and beneficial. Previously, most people who were in those situations saw themselves as being tragic because they were caught between the two.”

Ashe argues that it’s this duality, President Obama’s ties to both cultures, which made

A&S FACULTY RESEARCH

him a particularly appealing candidate during everyone was reacting to him. I’m not the 2008 election. writing about him coming to terms with “For better or worse, electoral politics his racial identity, but how other people in this era that we’re in has people thinking, perceived him and how the American ‘I want a leader who seems like me’,” Ashe public had to come to terms with his racial said. “You so often hear, ‘He seems like a guy identity.”

I could sit down and have a beer with.’ This She says younger Americans particularly also plays into this rise of Sarah Palin. People have had a hard time understanding why feel like she’s one of them.” the president does not identify as biracial, While this image helped the president get but that it isn’t as much of an issue for elected, Ashe says it may work against him older generations. now that he’s in office.

“In some ways I don’t think the average “I think part of why some think American understood the history of he’s struggling is because the various identifying as African American. Older constituencies may have projected on him people did, and it goes back to that old what they thought he was or what they “one-drop” rule that unfortunately existed wanted him to be,” he said. for a long time—that “For better or worse, “And maybe he’s turned out if you had one drop of not to be that. He was able to electoral politics in this African American blood present this image that allowed in you, then you were era that we’re in has people to project onto him considered black.” what they thought they saw Jones says that the people thinking, ‘I want and go, ‘Boom, I like that guy, I’m rule is being bent and a leader who seems like broken now by figures voting for him’.”

Ashe is still in the draft like President Obama me’,” Ashe said. stages of his book, and says and Tiger Woods, his essay on Obama will make who famously stated up just one chapter of the work. He’ll also he identifies himself as Cablinasian—a examine other prominent political, musical, combination of his four heritages: and pop culture figures.

Caucasian, African American, American Suzanne Jones, who specializes in the study Indian, and Asian. of southern literature, says she decided to Jones says she too will incorporate analyze the president’s autobiography as part her essay into her next book, which she of a larger study she was completing on the hopes will provide a modern context for re-emergence of the biracial character in the America’s ever-shifting definition of race. g American imagination.

She was studying a broad spectrum of mediums: novels, biographies, and family histories. Dreams From My Father fit perfectly into her research.

Jones’ essay focused on the President’s path to self-identify as African American and how Americans have reacted to that decision.

Click to read excerpts from The Obama Effect.

“It was one of the hardest essays I’ve ever written,” she said. “I was of course writing about the book he had written, but I was writing about it in the context of how

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A&S IN THE COMMUNITY

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Geographers invite middle school students to campus for GIS Day celebration In a few years’ time, when the middle school students at Sabot at Stony Point learn to drive, they may never need to open one of those impossible-to-refold maps that their parents stuffed into their glove boxes for long drives.

Their cars will tell them when they’ve overshot their destination, and their phones will help them plot the route that takes them to their favorite fast food chain.

The technology behind the GPS devices that they will undoubtedly take for granted is geographic information system (GIS) technology, and with one million people across the globe already relying on it to solve problems and make better decisions, it’s no wonder geographers the world over have officially declared the third Wednesday in November GIS Day. The international event has evolved since its introduction in 1999. More than 10,000 organizations have participated in GIS Day

by hosting educational events such as open houses, workshops, expos, career fairs, and mapping projects.

Faculty in the Department of Geography and the Environment have been in on the fun for several years, hosting an open house in the department’s Spatial Analysis Lab and GIS-inspired cake decorating contests to draw participants from across campus.

“It’s important for our department to participate in events like this one so we can begin to educate the entire campus on the great potential GIS holds,” said geography professor Kim Klinker.

This year geography faculty and students expanded upon the festivities, inviting an area middle school, Sabot at Stony Point, to the University of Richmond to participate in a half-day of programming related to the use of GIS. “Can anyone tell me the coordinates of where we are?” geography major Ethan Strickler, ’12, asked a group of seventh and eighth graders as he and Yazmeen Nuñez, ’14, led them on a campus-wide scavenger hunt. Nuñez hasn’t yet declared a major but plans to major in geography and international studies.

We asked the students from Sabot at Stony Point where they’d like to go in the world if given the chance.

Click this icon to view the video.

A&S IN THE COMMUNITY

At each stop, Strickler and Nuñez helped the group decipher codes, which in turn provided them with the coordinates they needed to find their next clue. They’d punch the coordinates into their GPS receivers and off they’d go, ultimately ending their hunt at the gazebo on Westhampton Lake.

Back at the Carole Weinstein International Center, where both the Department of Geography and the Environment and the Spatial Analysis Lab are housed, the students got the opportunity to play with software that builds maps of any region of the world, building one layer of data upon another and allowing users to see the ways a region has changed over time.

Bruce Coffey teaches Global Studies at Sabot at Stony Point and helped his students interpret some of the maps they were looking at on their computer monitors.

“I want you to notice what happens to Islamic territory over time … the Fatimid Caliphate, the Seljuk Empire, the Mamluk Empire. They get much smaller. What happened to those territories? Did they stop being Islamic?” Coffey asked his class.

A voice, belonging to a girl named Sarah, piped up.

“Someone else took it over,” she said.

“That’s right,” Coffey said. “But it’s important to remember that when people conquer territories, they don’t always control all the territories. Spain didn’t stop being Islamic completely. There are still people in Spain who practice Islam.”

After the exercise, Coffey said, “As a history teacher, I’m concerned with my students using resources of the past to help them understand the present. The maps we were using in [the Spatial Analysis Lab] are perfect for that.” g

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A&S FEATURE

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A&S Summer Research Fellowships help students immerse themselves in full-time research Applications for the School of Arts & Sciences’ 2011 Summer Research Fellowships are now available online (as. richmond.edu/student-research) and are due February 14.

Last summer approximately 230 University of Richmond students spent eight, nine or 10 weeks between May and August working 40 hours per week on a research project of their choosing. Each year, the majority of students remain on campus to complete their research; however, some students develop proposals that take them farther afield to complete primary research or produce creative works.

Students receive a stipend of $400 per week, plus an additional $50 per week if they elect to live on campus. Summer accommodations are available through the Office of Student Housing.

The experience is designed to be a full-time endeavor and, if a student accepts a summer fellowship, he or she may not have any other paid or unpaid summer jobs or internships, including resident assistant positions or other on-campus jobs.

For the first time ever, the application process for Arts & Sciences Summer Research Fellowships has gone completely online. A complete application includes a completed application, resume, unofficial transcript, project proposal, and faculty letter of recommendation. Progress reports on prior projects and portfolios are required of some students.

Funding for the School’s summer research program has grown by over 350 percent over the past decade. Students apply for funding through the School of Arts & Sciences but additional support is made available because of grants the School has received from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Science Foundation, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, and the Grainger Initiative.

Last year alone, 25 science students were named HHMI Fellows, 15 math and computer science students received funding as a result of participation in the LongTerm Undergraduate Research Experience (LURE) Program funded by NSF, and 42 additional science students’ fellowships were

Sample Research Topics that Received A&S Funding in 2010 Not sure how what you’re learning in the classroom can translate into an independent research project? Just contemplate two things: a topic that interests you and a faculty member with whom you’d love to work.

Archeology and Identity: The Impact of Ethnicity and Nationalism on the Preservation of Archaeological Remains Documenting the Greyhound Industry Proteomic Profiles of Machado-Joseph Disease in a Drosophila Model Immune-Related Gene Expression in the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti Infected with the Entomopathogenic Nematode Steinernema carpocapsae From Attica to Florence: Treatment of the Trojan War in Classical vs. Renaissance Art Developing Computational Tools for Analysis of New Genomes Objectivity and Virginia Woolf Female Adolescence in American Literature: 1900 to 2010 The Winds of Jepirachi: An Investigation of Alternative Energy and Indigenous Rights in Colombia The Shanghai Ghetto: Diaspora and Zionist Identities Applications of Wavelets A Molecular Biocircuit for the Iron Regulation in Bacteria The Allocation of Social Spending: Education versus Unemployment

A&S FEATURE

funded by the Grainger Initiative.

Still more students receive summer support directly from faculty mentors who have received external funding for their own research. University of Richmond faculty almost always allocate funding in their proposals to support undergraduate researchers.

To encourage faculty to devote time in the summer to mentoring students, the School of Arts & Sciences provides stipends that reward faculty for going out of their way to create unique research opportunities for undergraduate students.

“Providing mentoring stipends is difficult for most schools to do,” said Kathy Hoke, associate dean of research support, “but it ensures that these projects are true collaborations between a faculty member and a student, and that the student is never completely on his or her own.”

The School’s dedication to details such as these pays dividends. Hoke recently put together a presentation for the Council on Undergraduate Research. To prepare, she interviewed Arts & Sciences alumni who had participated in research experiences as undergrads at UR. Alumni resoundingly said that their undergraduate research experiences taught them vital critical thinking skills, gave them confidence to pursue graduate-level research, and prepared them for careers in today’s most competitive industries.

“Everyone thinks that their college experience is the sum of the courses they take,” said Greg Morrisett, ’89, a professor of computer science at Harvard University.

“But for me, it was the activity beyond the traditional classroom, and in particular, undergraduate research that defined the lasting and important experience. At Richmond, not only was I exposed to and prepared for academic research, but I was given the guidance and mentorship I needed to be confident and successful.” g

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A&S ALUMNI FOCUS

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UR Alumnus puts his degree to good use as Gov. McDonnell’s Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Prior to attending the University of Richmond, Todd Haymore, ‘91, had spent his childhood growing up on his grandparents’ Danville tobacco farm in Pittsylvania County.

And despite his grandparents’ pleas for him to not become a farmer, Haymore’s professional career has led him to the top of Virginia’s agricultural industry as Gov. Bob McDonnell’s secretary of agriculture and forestry.

Although he sees himself as nonpartisan, he got his start in politics early working on campaigns. At the age of 10, Haymore was knocking on doors for former Republican state Sen. Onico Barker, an experience he said spurred him on in politics.

Haymore later interned with Barker at the state capitol while earning a bachelor’s degree in political science at UR. “I learned from [my parents] the importance of being involved in political activity because the outcomes affected your life,” Haymore said.

Haymore lives in Richmond with his wife, Margaret, and their three daughters.

As secretary, he is McDonnell’s point person—or, the “chief marketing and development officer”—for agriculture and forestry

interests in Virginia, as well as throughout the country and world.

Aside from meeting with the governor regularly about policies, legislation, and issues, Haymore also works with private sector companies producing agricultural products to move them globally. He also focuses on local efforts, such as promoting more farmers’ markets across the state.

“That is what I wake up every morning thinking about and generally [it’s the] last thing I go to bed thinking about,” Haymore said. “What can I do to fulfill the governor’s mandate to help create more jobs and opportunities for our citizens?”

But Haymore has not worked with only Republicans—and sees it as an asset that he works well with both parties.

After college, he got his professional start as the communications director for former 5th District U.S. Rep. L. F. Payne, a “blue dog Democrat,” as Haymore described him. He later worked as deputy campaign

experience and the personality needed to be the face of Virginia’s products.

“Todd understands the issues facing these important industries,” McDonnell said, “and just as importantly, he knows well the people involved in them. His work to promote Virginia products is paying off, and it will mean new jobs for our citizens and a stronger economy for our Commonwealth.”

Haymore credits his Pittsylvania County upbringing with his appreciation and understanding for agriculture, although he finds it ironic that his grandparents—tobacco, corn and soybean farmers—pushed him away from being a farmer.

“They were constantly telling me how important it was to get an education and go out and experience new and different things beyond the farm,” he said. “Yet my entire career, almost 20 years of private and [public] sector services, has been tied back to agriculture … I think they would be incredibly proud of what I’ve done for agriculture.” g

Reprinted with edits and permission from the Danville Register & Bee. Photo by Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch.

A&S ALUMNI FOCUS

manager when Payne ran for lieutenant governor.

Political science professor Dan Palazzolo met Haymore when he was working for Payne, when Haymore arranged a meeting for Palazzolo’s class with Payne in his Washington office.

“Todd was so helpful,” Palazzolo said.

“He had a positive experience as a political science major and was eager to share his experiences with other students and expose them to a member of Congress and other staff in the Congressman’s office.”

After more than seven years working with Payne, Haymore returned home to Danville to work in the private sector for tobacco company Dimon, then moved back to Richmond with Universal Leaf Tobacco.

Haymore worked his way up through the company to director of external affairs at Universal Leaf, all while getting his MBA at Virginia Commonwealth University.

In 2007, then-Gov. Timothy M. Kaine asked him to serve as commissioner of agriculture and consumer services. Although Haymore turned him down once, he accepted a month later and served until McDonnell asked him to be on his cabinet in Nov. 2009.

McDonnell said in an e-mail that he chose Haymore because of his background, his

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A&S IN THE WORKS

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Accomplishments Elizabeth Baughan’s [classical studies] paper, “Sculpted Symposiasts of Ionia,” was accepted for publication by the American Journal of Archaeology. She also presented a paper, “Burial Klinai and ‘Totenmahl’” at an Oxford conference, “Dining and Death: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the ‘Funerary Banquet’ in Art, Burial, and Belief.”

Single Bonds” with Bernard K. Wittmaack, ’11, appeared in Organic Letters and “Predicting the Relative Stability of Simple vs. Ansa-Sandwich Systems Across Groups: Structure, Bonding, and (In)stability in Tris(sandwich)benzene Complexes” with Matthew Bober, ’11, will appear in Chemistry – A European Journal.

Laura Browder [English] had an essay, “True Crime,” published in The Cambridge Companion to American Crime Fiction (2010).

Tracing the origins and history of the true crime book, she covers, among other works, Capote’s In Cold Blood, Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter, and Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me.

Libby Gruner [English] published an article, “Telling Old Tales Newly: Intertextuality in Young Adult Fiction for Girls,” in the book, Telling Children’s Stories: Narrative Theory and Children’s Literature (2010).

Ted Bunn and Jerry Gilfoyle [physics] received $162,000 from the National Science Foundation to purchase a new supercomputing cluster for research in cosmology and nuclear physics.

Sheila Carapico [political science] is on leave from Richmond this year while serving as visiting chairperson of the Department of Political Science at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. She is teaching courses in her specialty, Middle East politics.

Lee Carleton [Writing Center] collaborated with sound artist Erik Deluca to help students at the Sabot School at Stony Point generate Haiku for a piece entitled “Sonic Portrait III: The James,” which was an acoustic collaboration composed for the 10th annual Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival.

Kelling Donald [chemistry] published two recent papers with undergraduate co-authors: “Shorter Still: Compressing C-C

Sharon G. Feldman’s [LAIS] book In the Eye of the Storm: Contemporary Theater in Barcelona was awarded the Serra d’Or Critics’ Prize 2010 for Research in Catalan Studies. Her translation of Desire, a Catalan play by Josep Maria Benet i Jornet, had its UK premiere at the White Bear Theatre Club (London) in July 2010. Her translation of It’s Raining in Barcelona, a Catalan play

by Pau Miró, was staged at several theatres along the Canadian Fringe circuit during the summer of 2010. The play premiered in London at the Cock Tavern Theatre in January 2011.

April Hill [biology] published a paper, “Expansion, diversification, and expression of T-box family genes in Porifera,” with Kay Holstien, ’09, and Serena Ding, ’11, in Development, Genes and Evolution. She also published a paper, “Origin of Pax and Six gene families in sponges: Single PaxB and Six1/2 orthologs in Chalinula loosanoffi,” with Lisa Warner, ’08, in Developmental Biology.

Ray Hilliard’s book, Ritual Violence and the Maternal in the British Novel, 1740-1820, was published in 2010 by the Bucknell University Press.

Joanne Kong [music] performed the Virginia premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composter Michael Colgrass’ piano and harpsichord concerto, Side by Side, on Oct. 22 in Camp Concert Hall.

Bill Myers [chemistry] has co-authored seven recently published papers arising from his on-going collaborations with colleagues at University of Virginia: three in Organometallics, two in Organic Letters (including one with his student, Diana Iovan, ’12), and one each in Tetrahedron: Assymetry and the Journal of the American Chemical Society. These papers report on organic synthesis projects, especially when mediated by special metal complexes.

Ted Peebles [LAIS] taught language courses at the University of Virginia’s Hispanic Studies in Spain program, and at the Universidad Católica de Valencia in Valencia, Spain. At the UCV, he gave a presentation to students of language pedagogy entitled “Teaching with Technology at the University of Richmond (USA).”

In recent months, Gary Shapiro [philosophy] has given talks in Brazil, Hungary, and Sweden. In Rio de Janiero, he spoke on “Strategies of Serendipity: Nietzsche’s Kairotic Vigilance” at the colloquium on “Practices of Chance”; he spoke on “Nietzsche’s Politics

of the Earth” at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest; in Pecs, Hungary, he gave the keynote, “World, Earth, Globe: Three Forms of Geophilosophy,” at the East-West Passage Conference; and in Stockholm, he spoke at the Museum of Modern Art on “Land Art: Frames, Diagrams, Territories” and at the Cultural Forum on “Nietzsche’s Gay Science of Religion.”

Akira Suzuki [MLC] has published a book, Me kara Uroko no Nihongo Bunpo, or Eye-Opening Japanese Grammar, with Junichiro Sakurada.

Aparna Telang [biology] published a paper, “Analysis of molecular markers for metamorphic competency and their response to starvation or feeding in the mosquito, Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae),” with Bennett Peterson, ’10, in the Journal of Insect Physiology.

Vincent Wei-cheng Wang [political science] has been elected vice president (president-elect) of the American Association for Chinese Studies.

This past summer Reed West [theatre] traveled to Ufa in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia to design scenery, lights, costumes, and props for Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park at the Russian Drama Theater.

Have some good news to share in the next issue of Artes Liberales? Send your professional achievements to rbeanlan@richmond.edu.

A&S IN THE WORKS

Malcolm Hill [biology] published a paper, “Zooxanthellar symbionts shape host sponge trophic status through translocation of carbon,” with Andrew Massaro, ’11, and Blake Ramsby, ’09, in Biological Bulletin.

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CONNECT

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connect Attend FEBRUARY

MARCH

February 10 @ 3 p.m.

Brown-Alley Room, Weinstein Hall American Studies professor Laura Browder will be the final speaker in the Sociology & Anthropology Racial and Ethnic Identity series, presenting: “Strange Bed Fellows? The National Rifle Association and the Black Panthers.”

March 3 @ 7 p.m.

Westhampton Living Room, Westhampton Center American poet Donald Revell reads from his work. Part of the Department of English’s Writers Series.

February 18 @ 1:30 p.m.

Gottwald Auditorium Patricia Fitzgerald Bocarsly, professor at the New Jersey School of Medicine, will speak as part of the Department of Chemistry’s Seminar Series.

February 23 @ 7:30 p.m.

Camp Concert Hall, Booker Hall of Music Pianist Thomas Mastroianni will give a presentation on Franz Liszt’s Années de Pelerinage (Years of Pilgrimage).

February 23 @ 7 p.m.

Brown-Alley Room, Weinstein Hall American novelist and memoirist Danzy Senna reads from her work. Part of the Department of English’s Writers Series. (This event was originally scheduled for March 16.)

February 25 @ 7:30 p.m.

February 26 @ 7:30 p.m.

February 27 @ 2 p.m.

Alice Jepson Theatre, Modlin Center for the Arts The University Dancers present their 26th annual dance concert, directed by Anne Van Gelder.

February 26 @ 3 p.m.

Camp Concert Hall, Booker Hall of Music The Role of Music in a Global Society: Panel Discussion with Lei Liang, the Shanghai Quartet and Wu Man.

March 17 @ 7 p.m.

Courtyard, Carole Weinstein International Center 4th Annual Arabian Night cultural festival with live music, Arabic poetry readings, food sampling, and information on the countries and religions of the Middle East.

March 18 @ 1:30 p.m.

Gottwald Auditorium Harry Gray, professor at the California Institute of Technology, will speak at the annual Powell Lecture as part of the Department of Chemistry’s Seminar Series.

March 23 @ 7 p.m.

Brown-Alley Room, Weinstein Hall Slovenian poet and essayist Aleš Šteger and Russian poet Polina Barskova read from their work. Part of the Department of English’s Writers Series.

March 25 @ 1:30 p.m.

Gottwald Auditorium Magdolna Harggaiti, professor at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, will speak as part of the Department of Chemistry’s Seminar Series.

March 27 @ 3:00 p.m.

Camp Concert Hall, Booker Hall of Music Faculty artist Richard Becker and his wife, Doris Wylee-Becker, present a duo-piano concert featuring music by Becker, Stravinsky, Debussy, and others.

April 1 @ 1:30 p.m.

Gottwald Auditorium Wes Borden, professor at the University of North Texas, will speak as part of the Department of Chemistry’s Seminar Series.

April 4 @ 7:30 p.m.

Camp Concert Hall, Booker Hall of Music Internationally renowned composer Chen Yi will speak about creating music that inspires people of different cultural backgrounds. Part of the lecture series presented by the Jepson School of Leadership Studies.

April 6 @ 7 p.m.

Brown-Alley Room, Weinstein Hall American short story writer George Saunders reads from his work. Part of the Department of English’s Writers Series.

April 6 @ 7:30 p.m.

Camp Concert Hall, Booker Hall of Music UR Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Kordzaia will perform a masterpiece by Robert Schumann.

April 8 @ 7:30 p.m.

Camp Concert Hall, Booker Hall of Music Schola Cantorum, Women’s Chorale, and eighth blackbird premiere a work by Chinese-American composer Chen Yi. April 10 Global Sounds Festival: The University of Richmond celebrates traditional music and dance from around the world. Performances will be held throughout the day at various outdoor locations across the UR campus.

April 11 @ 7:30 p.m.

Camp Concert Hall, Booker Hall of Music UR Jazz Ensemble and Combo will perform a night of swing, rock, and Latin jazz.

April 13 @ 7:30 p.m.

Camp Concert Hall, Booker Hall of Music The University of Richmond student soloists will perform in the Wind Ensemble’s spring concert, conducted by David Niethamer.

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April 14 @ 4:30 p.m.

Brown-Alley Room, Weinstein Hall Professor of English and film at the University of California, Irvine, Jerome Christensen speaks as part of the Department of English’s Lecture Series.

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April 15 from 1-5 p.m.

Modlin Center for the Arts Arts & Sciences Student Symposium.

April 14 @ 7:30 p.m.

April 15 @ 7:30 p.m.

April 16 @ 7:30 p.m.

April 17 @ 2 p.m.

Alice Jepson Theatre, Modlin Center The Department of Theatre and Dance presents the stage adaptation of the novel, Things Fall Apart, directed by Chuck Mike.

April 20 @ 7:30 p.m.

Camp Concert Hall, Booker Hall of Music The UR Chamber Ensembles present an evening of music performed by student instrumentalists, vocalists, and pianists.

All university events that are open to the public are listed online at calendar.richmond.edu.

Interact @richmondas www.facebook.com/richmondas Search Richmond Arts & Sciences under “Groups” at linkedin.com

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University of Richmond, Virginia 23173

We asked Amy Nicholas to talk more about her current art work.

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Amy Nicholas, ’11. “The Chaos of Survival” (detail) This collage of cancer cells and tree photographs explores how natural forms of various sizes and scales relate to each oher, both visually and in meaning, when the two images are ambiguously intertwined.