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September, 2011:

Graduate School Workshop

Interested in attending graduate school, but not sure where to start searching for the right program or how to line up letters of recommendation? If so, this up-coming workshop sponsored by the Department of History and American Studies will answer your many questions. The workshop will cover the basics of applying to graduate school from questions concerning the GRE to deciding why and where to go to graduate school. All students from the Humanities and Social Sciences are invited to attend.

Where/when: Thursday, October 6, 7pm, Monroe Hall 240. Refreshments will be served.

Upcoming James Monroe Lecture – “Before Monticello: The Virginia of Jane and Peter Jefferson”

Monday, October 3rd, 7 pm
Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center (UMW)

Susan Kern, Visiting Assistant Professor of History at the College of William & Mary and author of The Jeffersons at Shadwell, will deliver this year’s James Monroe Lecture. Merging archaeology, material culture, and social history, Kern’s talk will reconstruct the fascinating story of Shadwell, the birthplace of Thomas Jefferson and home to his parents, Jane and Peter Jefferson, their eight children, and over sixty slaves. Located in present-day Albemarle County, Virginia, Shadwell was at the time considered “the frontier.” Shadwell was Thomas Jefferson’s patrimony, but his real legacy came from his parents, who cultivated the strong social connections that would later open doors for their children. At Shadwell, Jefferson learned the importance of fostering relationships with slaves, laborers, and other powerful office holders, as well as the hierarchical structure of large plantations. The Jeffersons’ role in settling Virginia provides a new perspective on Thomas Jefferson and on others – including James Monroe – who extended social and political power across Virginia as they moved west.

The program is sponsored by the Board, Friends and staffs of the following UMW departments: James Monroe Museum; Center for Historic Preservation; Department of Historic Preservation; Department of History and American Studies.

Free. Dessert reception to follow.

 

Upcoming James Monroe Lecture – “Before Monticello: The Virginia of Jane and Peter Jefferson”

Monday, October 3rd, 7 pm
Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center (UMW)

Susan Kern, Visiting Assistant Professor of History at the College of William & Mary and author of The Jeffersons at Shadwell, will deliver this year’s James Monroe Lecture. Merging archaeology, material culture, and social history, Kern’s talk will reconstruct the fascinating story of Shadwell, the birthplace of Thomas Jefferson and home to his parents, Jane and Peter Jefferson, their eight children, and over sixty slaves. Located in present-day Albemarle County, Virginia, Shadwell was at the time considered “the frontier.” Shadwell was Thomas Jefferson’s patrimony, but his real legacy came from his parents, who cultivated the strong social connections that would later open doors for their children. At Shadwell, Jefferson learned the importance of fostering relationships with slaves, laborers, and other powerful office holders, as well as the hierarchical structure of large plantations. The Jeffersons’ role in settling Virginia provides a new perspective on Thomas Jefferson and on others – including James Monroe – who extended social and political power across Virginia as they moved west.

The program is sponsored by the Board, Friends and staffs of the following UMW departments: James Monroe Museum; Center for Historic Preservation; Department of Historic Preservation; Department of History and American Studies.

Free. Dessert reception to follow.

 

European Capitals – Summer Course 2012

Interested in a twenty-six day, six-credit, study abroad offering in Europe? Information on the annual “European Capitals” summer European study program is now available. See below for further details and contacts (deadline for registration and deposit is October 21, 2010.)

 

“European Capitals: Yesterday And Today”

May-June 2012

The Departments of History and American Studies and Political Science and International Affairs are sponsoring, for the twentieth year, a six-credit course that will take a limited number of students to Europe for twenty-six days during the first term of summer school in 2012. Participants can experience the Europe of yesterday, today, and tomorrow by visiting London, Paris, Berlin, Prague and Vienna.

Between May 14 and June 8, participants will visit various cultural, political and historical sites in or near the five cities listed on the itinerary below. The group will also attend several artistic performances (either theatrical or musical) during the trip. There will also be a number of one-day excursions to sites in the outlying suburbs or within an hour train or bus ride.

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Social Justice Brown Bag Lunch Series – This Wednesday (9/14)

The Social Justice Brown Bag Lunch Series will hold its first meeting this Wednesday.

The topic of discussion will be: “What is Social Justice?”

Purpose: Engage students, faculty, and staff to discuss issues of social justice together in an informal setting.

When: Wednesday, 9/14, noon.

Where: Woodard Campus Center, Meeting Room 4

Please email Matthew Johnson (mjohns22@umw.edu) to suggest a topic of discussion for future lunches and volunteer to lead a session. 

For further questions, please contact the James Farmer Multicultural Center – (540) 654-1044

New Faculty Introduction – Matthew Johnson

Our department is pleased to welcome Dr. Matthew Johnson, who joins us this year as the James Farmer Postdoctoral Fellow in Civil Rights and Social Justice.  He earned his doctorate in the field of American History at Temple University, where he recently completed a dissertation entitled “The Origins of Diversity: Managing Race at the University of Michigan, 1963-2006.” This study offers a view of the role of institutions and the people who managed them in the fight for racial justice. Focusing on the University of Michigan as a case study, it explores the role of administrators in rethinking admissions and recruiting policies, curriculum, counseling programs, and, in the process, creating new programs to facilitate racial equity and address racial tension.

Dr. Johnson is currently teaching courses at UMW on “The Long Civil Rights Movement” and “Race, Crime, and Punishment.”

Social Justice Brown Bag Lunch Series – This Wednesday (9/14)

The Social Justice Brown Bag Lunch Series will hold its first meeting this Wednesday.

The topic of discussion will be: “What is Social Justice?”

Purpose: Engage students, faculty, and staff to discuss issues of social justice together in an informal setting.

When: Wednesday, 9/14, noon.

Where: Woodard Campus Center, Meeting Room 4

Please email Matthew Johnson (mjohns22@umw.edu) to suggest a topic of discussion for future lunches and volunteer to lead a session. 

For further questions, please contact the James Farmer Multicultural Center – (540) 654-1044

Fulbright Information Meeting – Tues 9/6, 5:00 PM

Interested in applying for a Fulbright Fellowship? Dr. Nabil Al-Tikriti, campus advisor, will hold a meeting this Tuesday, September 6, at 5:00 PM in Monroe 240.

See below for more information:

Would you like to study ballet in Moscow, opera in Italy, or Flemish Renaissance painters in Belgium? Would you like to research migration patterns into Western Europe, Nile River Valley irrigation methods, mathematics in Ukraine, chess in India, or the effects of global warming on tropical rain forests in Brazil? Would you like to teach English in Turkey, Korea, India, Germany, Japan, Italy, or several other countries? These and several other possibilities exist under the Fulbright/IIE program.

If you are unsure what to do after graduation, and would like to spend next year teaching and/or conducting research abroad, consider submitting an application to the Fulbright Graduate and Research Abroad Program. This year’s national application deadline is October 17, 2011. The campus submission deadline is October 7, 2011.

This year I will first advise interested UMW Students on their applications, and will then share their application statements with our Fulbright Campus Evaluation Committee (Rosemary Jesionowski and Jessica Locke). This same committee will interview and rate each applicant for further consideration by the Institute of International Education, and Ms. Lisa Patton of the History Department will track all applicants’ application status.

UMW graduates have won 6 Fulbright grants in the past four years, which shows that it can be done. Last year, Michelle Alexander won a grant to research the effects of the Chernobyl disaster on the population of Ukraine. Previous UMW students won grants to teach English in Korea, research the justice system in Cambodia, teach English in Mexico, study the effects of climate change on Ecuador’s arachnid population, and research immigration patterns and security issues in the United Kingdom. You, too, can do it — you need only a good idea, a solid GPA, and strong recommendation letters.

Although grantees must have obtained their bachelor’s degree by the time of their award, students who are not graduating this year — as well as interested alumni — are also encouraged to attend this meeting because successful applications often require advance preparation. At the meeting I will distribute Fulbright informational materials, and discuss strategies for successful applications.

Prior to attending Tuesday’s meeting, I encourage interested students to research the Fulbright website: http://us.fulbrightonline.org/home.html .

 

– Dr. Nabil Al-Tikriti