Friends,
In just three short weeks, Arts & Sciences students will gather at the Modlin Center for the Arts to present a year’s worth of achievement in research and the creative arts. Many of you may remember the nervous anticipation that went into preparing to present your undergraduate thesis, your independent study or your honors exhibit at this annual event.
We’ve been hosting the School of Arts & Sciences’ Student Research Symposium for 24 years now. It’s hard to believe, but astronaut and alumnus Leland Melvin, ’87, was one of the students who presented his research at our very first symposium. I encourage you to leaf through this year’s program—the depth and breadth of topics that Arts & Sciences students cover will take your breath away. If you’re in the area, feel free to drop by and ask a challenging question or two of our students. Their answers will keep you on your toes.
After the last oral presentation has finished and people’s stomachs have been filled, we’re inviting people to reconvene at the Gottwald Center for the Sciences where the Department of Physics and the Richmond Astronomical Society are jointly presenting a program that celebrates the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first astronomical use of the telescope. In honor of the anniversary, everyone everywhere is encouraged to look through a telescope at least once in 2009. Are you without a telescope and far from the University of Richmond campus? For fun, check out this Micro Observatory where you can be a virtual Galileo for a night. Until next time, keep shooting for the stars.
Best,
Andy Newcomb
Dean, School of Arts & Sciences
University of Richmond
Thomas Gibney and Emily Hunt find success in the contemporary poetry scene
Thomas Gibney, ’08, graduated from Richmond with a degree in Latin American and Iberian studies; Emily Hunt, ’07, graduated with a degree in studio art. Thanks to experiences at Richmond, from influential professors to studying abroad to creative writing electives, both are now published poets. (more)
University Dancers’ “Arbitrary Intersection” selected to be performed at regional gala
The University of Richmond’s University Dancers attended the American College Dance Festival Association’s Mid-Atlantic Conference this month and the group’s piece was one of 12 pieces selected to be performed at the regional gala. (more.)
Career Development Center launches UR Career Network
The Career Development Center has created a new online system to give professionals, alumni and current students a simple, yet sophisticated way to connect with each other for professional networking. (more)
Humanities majors give talk at renowned mathematics institute
The Erwin Schrödinger Institute for Mathematical Physics (ESI) in Vienna, Austria was certainly not on the radar screen of Bill Cable, ’10, or Dan Rudary, ’10, when they enrolled at the University of Richmond in the fall of 2006. (more)
University of Richmond and VCU French Film Festival Mar. 27-29
The 17th annual French Film Festival, at the Byrd Theatre in Richmond, Virginia, presents 12 full-length French feature films and 16 French short films, introduced by the films’ actors and directors. (more)
Irish poet and dramatist Paul Muldoon reads from his work Mar. 30
Internationally acclaimed poet Paul Muldoon has published 10 books of poetry, including Moy Sand and Gravel, which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Griffin International Prize. (more)
University of Richmond Debate Team Cracks Top 25
Coached by Kevin Kuswa and Kelly Congdon, Richmond’s eight-person debate team has broken into rankings at No. 24 among such traditional powerhouses as Harvard and defending national champion Wake Forest and earned a bid to the 2009 national championship tournament. (more)
Professor directs Latin American Studies Association Film Festival
You don’t have to be a student in Latin American and Iberian studies professor Claudia Ferman’s classes to be educated by her about film. Ferman’s insight into film as communication, her passion for what film is capable of and her deep respect for the language of the medium can turn any listener into a gladly captive audience. (more)
History professor wins NEH grant for research seminar in Prato, Italy
Joanna Drell has been awarded a grant to participate in a National Endowment of the Humanities Summer Seminar for four weeks in Prato, Italy. The seminar, “Dante’s Divine Comedy and the Medieval World: Literature, History, Art,” is designed to foster new ways of reading and examining Dante’s Divine Comedy using interdisciplinary perspectives. (more)
American poet and memoirist Mark Doty reads from his work Apr. 9
Doty’s collection of poems “Fire to Fire” won the National Book Award in 2008 and his memoir “Dog Years” was a New York Times bestseller in 2007. His other work includes eight collections of poetry and four volumes of nonfiction. In 1993, “My Alexandria” earned Doty Great Britain’s T.S. Eliot Prize, and he remains the only American poet to have won it. (more)
University of Richmond hosts first major event in Civil War Sesquicentennial series April 29; registrations now being accepted
University of Richmond President Edward L. Ayers, an award-winning author and historian of the American South, has assembled a group of nationally recognized Civil War historians to explore the state of the country two years before the first shots were fired in the nation’s deadliest conflict. (more)
