Speaking his mind
Civil liberties activist defends free speech as critical in the quest for knowledge.
School of Arts & Sciences Dean’s Annual Report
2023-24 Now Available!
Art & Art History: Frames of Reference Series
Tiffany Sia, Film Screenings + Q&A
Program One: Monday, Feb. 24, 7 p.m.
Program Two: Tuesday, Feb. 25, 7 p.m.
Jepson Hall 118
Join the Department of Art & Art History for the Frames of Reference series, an annual program of artists’ films and videos. The event is programmed and organized by Jeremy Drummond, associate professor in visual and media arts practice.
Frames of Reference showcases some of the most creative, challenging, thoughtful, and visionary artists working in film, video, and alternative media today. Programs feature artists and artworks that resist conventions and ideologies of mainstream media; explore creative, innovative approaches to narrative and experiments in time-based media; and embrace unique viewpoints, perspectives, or frames of reference.
Tiffany Sia (b. Hong Kong, 1988) is an artist, filmmaker and writer who lives and works in New York. Sia has directed several short films, including Never Rest/ Unrest (2020), Do Not Circulate (2021), and What Rules the Invisible (2022), which have screened at TIFF Toronto International Film Festival, MoMA Doc Fortnight, New York Film Festival, Flaherty Film Seminar and elsewhere. The artist has previously had solo exhibitions at Artists Space, New York; Felix Gaudlitz, Vienna; and Maxwell Graham Gallery, New York. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Fondazione Prada, Italy; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea; Kunstverein Düsseldorf, Germany; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Denmark; The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Ireland and elsewhere.
Conversations with Film Professionals
Tobi Akinde
Tuesday, Feb. 25, 4:30-6 p.m.
Adams Auditorium, Boatwright Memorial Library
Join the Film Studies Program and Africana Studies Program for a conversation and film screening with Tobi Akinde, Nigerian filmmaker, independent curator, and researcher. Born in Abeokuta, Nigeria Akinde obtained a bachelor’s degree in law and German from the University of Ibadan (2021), where weekly he programmed arthouse film screenings for students, at the Institute of African Studies (2018-21). His most recent work as co-cinematographer, Coconut Head Generation, won the Jury Grand Prix at Cinema du Reel (2023). Akinde has presented his works to audiences at Film at Lincoln Center NY, The Museum of Modern Arts, Brooklyn Academic of Music Theaters, Maison Française at Columbia University, Goethe Institut Lagos and Institute of African Studies, Ibadan. He is shortlisted for the prestigious César’s Award (2025) for Best Cinematography for Coconut Head Generation alongside Alain Kassanda.
2024-20245 Tucker Boatwright Festival of Literature & the Arts
The Nature of Representation
The Nature of Representation asks how our understandings of “nature” have been shaped by representational practices in both the aesthetic and political senses, exploring how the current climate catastrophe is inextricable from colonialism and anthropocentric worldviews. The festival features contemporary writers, artists, and thinkers who don’t take for granted that language is merely human, that there are other “natural” languages, and that attuning to those other languages allows us to tell stories that disrupt the violence of Man.
"After the Clearing: Toni Morrison’s Ecopoetics – Sharon Holland and Sarah Jane Cervenak In Conversation"
Thursday, February 27, 4:30 p.m. | Humanities Commons
Sharon Holland is Townsand Ludington Distinguished Professor of American Studies at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and the author of three books: Raising the Dead: Readings of Death and (Black) Subjectivity, The Erotic Life of Racism, and an other: a black feminist consideration of animal life, and the co-author, with Tiyana Miles, of Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds: The African Diaspora in Indian Country. She was the 2022-23 President of the American Studies Association.
Sarah Jane Cervenak is professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies and African American studies at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She is the author of Wandering: Philosophical Performances of Racial and Sexual Freedom, and Black Gathering: Art, Ecology, Ungiven Life. She is the editor, with J. Kameron Carter, of the book series The Black Outdoors: Innovations in the Poetics of Study
Hosted by the Department of English.
A&S Student Symposium
Each April, we celebrate our diverse community of learners at the A&S Student Symposium, a showcase of student-led research projects from nearly 30 disciplines in the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Student researchers share their scholarly work with the campus community and the public through oral presentations, poster sessions, performances, and art exhibits.
FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2025, 1 TO 6 P.M.
A&S Books & Roses
FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2025, 4:30-6 p.m. | HUMANITIES COMMONS
Join the A&S Dean’s Office for the third annual Books & Roses Celebration showcasing A&S faculty and staff books published between April 20, 2024 and April 20, 2025.
Books & Roses is inspired by two annual international celebrations: 1) Saint George’s Day (“Sant Jordi”) in Catalonia, where literature and love are distinctly intertwined in a massive display and exchange of books and roses, and 2) UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day. Both are typically celebrated on April 23, which also happens to be the birthdate of Cervantes and Shakespeare.
The festivities will include cupcakes, refreshments, music, and roses.
Meet the 2024-25 Beckman Scholars
A&S students Marcos Hendler, of Rye, New York, and Aine MacDermott, of Lexington, Virginia, have each been awarded a prestigious Beckman Foundation Scholarship to support faculty-mentored student research in the sciences.
Beckman Scholars are selected among undergraduate biology and chemistry students based on commitment to research, strong academics, and potential to become scientific leaders. UR has had 26 Beckman Scholars since 2006.
Hendler, a chemistry major, is studying computational chemistry focused on molecules related to anticancer, which has implications in possible treatments. Hendler’s faculty mentor is chemistry professor Carol Parish. MacDermott, a biochemistry & molecular biology major, is researching ancient DNA under the mentorship of biology professor Melinda Yang. MacDermott is focused on the evolution of the alcohol metabolism gene ADH1B in present-day and ancient East Asian humans.
Humanities Center
2024-2025: How (And Why) Do We Represent Nature?
This question invites us to consider “representation” in both its political and aesthetic meaning. “Nature” is represented in paintings, poems, scripture, music, dancing, novels, laws, regulations, equations, activisms, advertising campaigns. This question asks how environments — and often their relations to human concerns — are represented across media, geographic and cultural contexts, and different historical moments.
A&S Feature Stories
Delving into policy
Senior Jackson Sandler-Bussey explores policy at home and abroad.
University of Richmond Returns Pre-Hispanic Artifacts to Mexico in Repatriation Ceremony
The University of Richmond recently returned several ancient, pre-Hispanic artifacts to Mexico in a repatriation ceremony.
University of Richmond Wins Champion Title at 25th Anniversary of the VFIC Applied Ethics Bowl
16 student teams from independent colleges and universities located throughout the Commonwealth deliberated over four rounds of case studies with ethical dilemmas related to Ethics and Artificial Intelligence.
A&S Faculty in the News
Oh, great: Rat populations are surging as cities heat up
Research by biology professor Jonathan Richardson is featured.
‘Masculine energy’: Do we need more in the workplace?
Psychology professor Adam Stanaland is quoted.
Warming temperatures in Boston appear to have another drawback, study says: More rats
Research by biology professor Jonathan Richardson is highlighted.
The humble origins of the Super Bowl halftime show: It wasn't always an elaborate spectacle
Music professor Joanna Love, an expert on the use of music in the Super Bowl, is interviewed.
Events
Faculty Expertise
Do you envision college as a place where your professor’s office hours are spent in deep conversation about topics beyond this week’s assignment? Where you can work side-by-side with a faculty member on cutting-edge research that is published in a professional journal?
In A&S, our faculty are experts on the cutting edge of their fields. While they could work in some of the top research institutions in the world, our faculty chose Richmond because they believe in educating tomorrow's leaders and are passionate about mentoring and sharing their knowledge with students.
A&S Faculty Highlights
Parish and students published in Journal of Computational Chemistry
Carol Parish, Floyd D. and Elisabeth S. Gottwald Professor of Chemistry, along with students Joshua Pandian, '23, Khanh Vu, '23, Anna Parker, '11, Christine Ancajas, '20, Diomedes Saldana-Greco, '10, and Tabitha Yewer, '14, published “A Highly Correlated, Multireference Study of the Lowest Lying Singlet and Triplet States of the Four Thiophene Diradicals” in the Journal of Computational Chemistry.
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Ferguson published on concerns in ecology and evolutionary findings
Stephen Ferguson, visiting assistant professor of biology, published "Same data, different analysts: variation in effect sizes due to analytical decisions in ecology and evolutionary biology" in BMC Biology.
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Suglo elected to board of directors at WARA
Ignatius G.D Suglo, assistant professor of rhetoric & communication studies, was elected to the board of directors of the West African Research Association (WARA).
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Beals published new translation of All Quiet on the Western Front
Kurt Beals, visiting associate professor of German studies and humanities fellow in literary translation, published a new translation of Erich Maria Remarque's classic anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front.
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Yang published on East Asian migration genetic links
Melinda A. Yang, assistant professor of biology, published "East Asian Gene flow bridged by northern coastal populations over past 6000 years" in Nature Communications.
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Knouse and students publish on ADHD and procrastination connection
Laura Knouse, professor of psychology, published "Avoidant Automatic Thoughts Are Associated With Task Avoidance and Inattention in the Moment: Replication in a Community Sample" in Journal of Attention Disorders along with Aditya Narayanan, '25, and Yueyi Fan, '23.
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Singh article considers political bonds created by shared space
Julietta Singh, professor of English and women, gender, & sexuality studies, published "On Anticolonial Homemaking" in Studies in Gender and Sexuality.
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Singh interviewed in Studies in Social Justice
Julietta Singh, professor of English and women, gender, & sexuality studies, was interviewed in special issue on "Reckoning, Repairing, Reworlding" in Studies in Social Justice.
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