October 7, 2024
Student Chronicles
Year two at Richmond
A group of students from the Class of 2027 look back at their first year and reflect on their first few weeks as sophomores.
School of Arts & Sciences Dean’s Annual Report
2023-24 Now Available!
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.
Susan Stryker, "Changing Gender: A Conversation with Susan Stryker."
Wednesday, November 13, 4:30 p.m. | Humanities Commons
Susan Stryker is one of the founders of trans studies, author of many award-winning books including the almost canonical Transgender History, as well as many influential essays across four decades, some collected in the just-published When Monsters Speak: A Susan Stryker Reader, edited by Mckenzie Wark. One of the most visible and influential trans scholars, she has appeared widely in national and international media. She was co-editor of the Transgender Studies Reader’s two editions, and co-founder of the journal TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly.
Hosted by the Department of English.
Department of English Writers Series
Susan Kiyo Ito
Wednesday, October 9, 6 p.m.
Carole Weinstein International Center Commons
Susan Kiyo Ito’s memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere, was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award, shortlisted for the Saroyan Prize for International Literature, and named a best book of 2023 by Library Journal. She co-edited the literary anthology A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of Adoption. Her work has appeared in The Writer, Catapult, Agni, Guernica, and elsewhere. She has been awarded residencies at the MacDowell Colony, The Mesa Refuge, Hedgebrook and Blue Mountain Center. Her theatrical adaption of Untold, stories of reproductive stigma, was produced at Brava Theater. She teaches at the Mills College campus of Northeastern University.
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
October 4, 2024
Student Experience
Fighting food insecurity
Third-year student Ben Mayes spent his summer working on a local farm to help provide produce for those in need.
October 4, 2024
Student Experience
A life-changing summer
Two Richmond student-interns learned the importance of playtime while working with pediatric patients at a New York City cancer center.
October 3, 2024
Student Scholars
University of Richmond Student Named Gilman-McCain Scholar
Glen Kettering is the first UR student to receive this award, which he is using to study abroad in Prague, Czech Republic.
A&S Faculty in the News
October 2, 2024
Lessons from America’s first ‘war on rats’ summit
Jonathan Richardson, an expert on urban rat populations, is quoted throughout this piece.
September 30, 2024
Research News
Climate Change's Upsetting Impacts On Fall Foliage Viewing
Research on fall foliage from geography and environment professor Stephanie Spera is highlighted.
September 29, 2024
Research News
What Makes the Perfect Forest for the Perfect Autumn?
Stephanie Spera, a geography, environment, and sustainability professor, is quoted related to her research on climate change and fall leaves.
September 24, 2024
A brief history of former presidents running for reelection: 3 losses, 1 win and 1 still TBD
History professor Graeme Mack authored this piece.
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
Jacobsen Published
Kathryn Jacobsen, William E. Cooper Distinguished University Chair and professor of health studies, published “Planetary health learning objectives: foundational knowledge for global health education in an era of climate change” in The Lancet Planetary Health.
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Redican and Undergraduate Student Published
Kyle Redican, teaching faculty of geography, environment, & sustainability and director of the Spatial Analysis Lab, along with undergraduate Matteo Gonzalez, ‘24, and Beth Zizzamia, Spatial Analysis Lab GIS operations manager, published “Assessing ChatGPT for GIS education and assignment creation” in the Journal of Geography in Higher Education.
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Zizzamia and Undergraduate Student Published
Beth Zizzamia, Spatial Analysis Lab GIS operations manager, along with undergraduate Matteo Gonzalez, ‘24, and Kyle Redican, teaching faculty of geography, environment, & sustainability and director of the Spatial Analysis Lab, published “Assessing ChatGPT for GIS education and assignment creation” in the Journal of Geography in Higher Education.
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Giancaspro and Undergraduate Student Published
David Giancaspro, associate professor of Spanish, along with Josh Higdon, ’22, published "First things third? The extension of canonically third-person singular inflections to first-person singular subjects in adult heritage Spanish" in Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics.
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Peifer Presented
Janelle Peifer, assistant professor of psychology, presented “Twice as hard for half as much rest: Reclaiming rest for healing trauma in women faculty of color” at the 36th Annual National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in Higher Education.
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Peifer Presented
Janelle Peifer, assistant professor of psychology, presented “Identity mapping as part of symposium on class assignments, projects, and papers that enhance undergraduate psychology courses: Part 2” at the 70th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association.
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Peifer Presented
Janelle Peifer, assistant professor of psychology, presented “Findings from a racially-informed longitudinal study of student development outcomes of colleges focused on global learning” at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Colleges & Universities.
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Peifer Published
Janelle Peifer, assistant professor of psychology, published “An interdisciplinary approach to studying academic success in STEM” in Contemporary Mathematics and Science Education.
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