07.23.08

Deborah E. McDowell recently named director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at UVa

Posted in African, Jacob Canon, The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia at 11:04 am by Jacob Canon

In today’s show, adapted from an article written by Anne Bromley, senior writer and editor for UVa Media Relations, we look at well-known writer, scholar and editor of African-American literature for both academic and general audiences, Deborah E. McDowell who was recently named director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at UVa.

Well-known writer, scholar and editor of African-American literature for both academic and general audiences, Deborah E. McDowell, was recently named director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at UVa.

The Woodson Institute, an interdisciplinary teaching and research center, was established in 1981 in response to student and faculty requests for a more coherent African-American and African Studies program and a more aggressive program of minority recruitment at the University. It is named after Carter Woodson, the “father of African-American history,” to honor the Virginia-born founder of African and African-American Studies who also inaugurated Black History Week (now Black History Month).

William B. Harvey, U.Va. Vice President and Chief Officer for Diversity and Equity and a member of the institute’s advisory board, said her appointment is great for the University. “She is an outstanding scholar and a visionary leader. She has the qualities to make the Woodson Institute one of the best centers in the nation.”

The institute selects scholars working in the humanities and social sciences for two-year pre-doctoral or one-year postdoctoral fellowships. The program is intended to facilitate the completion of dissertations or manuscripts in African-American and African Studies and related fields. In addition to overseeing undergraduate majors and minors, the interdisciplinary institute sponsors pre- and postdoctoral fellowships and a visiting scholars program. About 120 graduate students have benefited from the fellowships.

Dr. Maurice Apprey, dean of the Office of African-American Affairs said, “McDowell is strongly motivated to advance the educational mission of the Woodson Institute, in ways that would propel the University into the forefront of African, Caribbean and African-American studies nationally. A professor of English with a strong interdisciplinary fund of knowledge and conceptual rigor, she is very much suited to promote the transfer of knowledge and methods of application that our undergraduate, graduate students and fellows need to succeed.”

McDowell, a member of UVa.’s English department faculty since 1987 and the Alice Griffin Professor of Literary Studies at the University of Virginia said, “Over the years, we’ve had an impressive record of fellows moving to academic appointments here and elsewhere.” Her plans include doubling the number of fellowships per term from five to 10 next year and to go up to 12 the following year.

McDowell, who received her master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University and her B.A. from Tuskegee University said, the institute has been allotted faculty positions dedicated to supplementing gaps in the curriculum, especially to better represent Africa. With the Department of Religious Studies, for instance, a concentration in religions of the African Diaspora is taking shape.

Another new program begun this year under McDowell is an occasional series, “Currents in Conversation,” which aims to bring together members of the University and the broader community to discuss a topic from current events. The first one followed Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s speech in March about the campaign, “A More Perfect Union.”

You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon… Join us next week when we look at the Walter A. Ridley Distinguished Lecture at the University of Virginia, held recently in the Rotunda’s Dome Room.

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07.09.08

Reconsidering the Presidency

Posted in Jacob Canon, Politics, The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia, history at 11:04 am by Jacob Canon

In today’s show, written by Brevy Cannon, General Assignments writer for University of Virginia Media Relations, we look at a recent Center for Politics event, “Reconsidering the Presidency” held at the University of Virginia in April 2008.

“The vast and ever-increasing amounts of money spent on U.S. political campaigns are a detriment to our democracy. And, contrary to public opinion, the Electoral College is a quirk of American politics that should not be tampered with…”

Those two opinions were shared by three former governors, John Sununu of New Hampshire, Lowell Weicker of Connecticut and Virginia’s Doug Wilder, during the Center for Politics event, “Reconsidering the Presidency” in April 2008.

Center director and event host Larry Sabato noted in his introduction that he expected a lively debate from these three political veterans from across the political spectrum, and the trio did not disappoint, offering many diverging suggestions on how to reform U.S. politics and the presidential nomination process.

Sununu, a former three-term governor of New Hampshire, White House chief of staff and co-host of CNN’s “Crossfire” political news show, defended the widely criticized tradition of his home state being the first to hold presidential primaries.

Critics contend that being first gives New Hampshire an outsized influence; that the predominately white population isn’t reflective of the nation; and that voters there get the opportunity to personally meet with each candidate several times, while voters in other states may not even be visited.

Doug Wilder, former governor of Virginia, recalled his own run for president in 1992 and complained that recent presidential candidates haven’t campaigned enough in Virginia. He said, “It’s not right for certain areas of the country to be constantly courted to the degree that the residents there expect it … and others are surprised just to get a handshake or a chance even to be in the room with a presidential candidate.”

Sununu went on to say, “I think people don’t understand that the nominating process should demand from our citizens an equal commitment to the election process as the general election.” If another state goes first instead of New Hampshire, contended Sununu, that state should have some of the same merits as his state: a voter turnout rate near 75 percent, engaged citizens who ask serious questions and a place that doesn’t require lots of money to start being noticed by the public.

Wilder, who became the first African-American governor in U.S. history when elected in 1989, suggested that primary election rules could be “modernized” by having a longer timeframe, such as two weeks, in which to cast ballots, rather than just one day.

Weicker was elected governor of Connecticut in 1990 as an independent after serving three terms in the U.S. Senate as a Republican. He drew attention to the “extra hoops” that those outside the “two-party duopoly” must contend with in order to run for office. He proposed a constitutional amendment that would standardize the requirements for a presidential candidate to qualify to be on the ballot in any given state, replacing the widely varying requirements that inhibit independent candidates.

According to opinion polls cited by Sabato, contrary to the view of 70 percent of Americans who would like to do away with the Electoral College, all three governors felt it should stay. Weicker and Sununu both said that the current system (wherein a candidate wins all or none of the electors representing each state) makes candidates campaign in all 50 states.

All three panelists condemned what they all termed the “obscene” amounts of money involved in today’s politics, with Weicker going so far as to declare, “I think money is destroying politics in the United States.”

Only Wilder offered a substantive suggestion of how to address that issue. He said, “Copy a little bit from the British system, shortening it and saying the campaign will start on such and such a date and end on such and such a date… rather than as soon as George Bush took his hand down from swearing… taking his oath as president, this campaign started. That doesn’t make any sense at all, we got to shorten that.”

Sununu also decried how today’s media have “poisoned the minds of the public” with flawed coverage of political issues like the Florida recounts in the 2000 presidential election. While one questioner defended the role of the media as “the fourth branch of government,” no participants even entertained the idea that political advertising might benefit the political process, such as by increasing voter knowledge and participation, as recent research from U.Va. politics professor Paul Freedman has found.

You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when we look at the annual Walter A. Ridley Distinguished Lecture at the University of Virginia, held recently in the Rotunda’s Dome Room.

For more information about scholarship, creativity and research, please visit www.oscar.virginia.edu. Did you miss a show? Then go to www.wtju.net and click on “blogs & pods” or visit www.cvillepodcast.com. Question about this program; please call WTJU at 434-924-0885 or email at wtju@virginia.edu.

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07.02.08

A Rising Star in Astronomy

Posted in The Oscar Show at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon

In today’s show, written by Karen Doss Bowman is a freelance writer living in Bridgewater, VA, we look at Rachael Beaton, a first year grad student at the University of Virginia, whose galactic discoveries have earned her international attention.

First-year graduate students aren’t usually given historic research assignments. But after years of waiting for the opportunity to make their first observation on the Large Binocular Telescope or LBT, in Tucson, Ariz., UVa’s astronomy faculty voted last fall to bestow the honor on first-year graduate student Rachael Beaton (Astronomy-Physics, Mathematics ’07, MS Astronomy ’10).

Beaton used the LBT, whose construction was completed last fall and is the world’s largest optical telescope in which the University shares ownership, to take images of one of the breakthrough discoveries she had made before receiving her undergraduate degree, a dwarf galaxy she had discovered in 2006.

Beaton, a Jefferson Scholars Graduate Fellow said, “I was very flattered to be the first astronomer from UVa to receive data from the LBT. While realizing how significant it is to have the first UVa observations taken with the LBT, I suppose my main excitement is having the potential to learn so much more about the galaxy itself.”

Beaton found the unusual dwarf galaxy, dubbed Andromeda XIV, while conducting a survey of the large Andromeda galaxy, which scientists call “M31”, a Milky-Way neighbor about 2.5 million light-years from Earth and thought to be the largest of the “Local Group” of galaxies.

While most nearby dwarf galaxies appear to be satellites bound by gravity to larger, Local Group galaxies such as M31 or the Milky Way, Andromeda XIV seems to be moving too fast to be bound to either system.

Beaton said, “Andromeda XIV may be falling into the Local Group for the first time or even just passing through, making Andromeda XIV an “intergalactic rogue” with a unique life story compared to nearby star systems.” She added, “…another possibility is that M31 may be more massive and exert a much stronger gravitational pull than astronomers thought.

Her adviser Steven Majewski, professor of astronomy said, “either result would be interesting, because of what scientists might learn about the nature of dwarf galaxies and the evolution of galaxy systems in the Local Group. Beaton’s data from the LBT may help resolve the mystery.”

Finding Andromeda XIV isn’t Beaton’s only contribution to the field. In the 1990s, M31’s status as a twin and research model for the Milky Way was shaken when astronomers, including Professor of Astronomy Michael Skrutskie, discovered that our home galaxy contained a bar-shaped formation of stars in the center.

Beaton settled the debate in 2005 when she found a similar bar in M31 using data from a large infrared survey of the sky led by Professor Skrutskie. As a result, in March 2006 Beaton was invited to Marseilles, France, to work with world-renowned astronomer Lia Athanassoula, an expert in galactic bars. Beaton also presented her work at the Universitas 21 Undergraduate Research Conference in Brisbane, Australia.

Described by Majewski as a “phenomenal student” with enviable organizational skills, Beaton is committed to mentoring young scientists at the high school and college levels. She also a well rounded person who has been active in the Cavalier Marching Band and the University’s chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, a national music fraternity.

With at least four years of graduate studies ahead, Beaton is not making firm career plans but will continue studying M31 and Andromeda XIV. She loves doing research, and her discoveries have only fueled her scientific curiosity.

Beaton said, “Discoveries like these often pose more questions than they answer. So, what I felt at the initial moment of discovery was an overwhelming sense of the potential these could have in my field—a sort of wide-eyed awe at what these discoveries could do.”

You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will well look at a recent Center for Politics event, “Reconsidering the Presidency” held at the University of Virginia in April 2008.

For more information about scholarship, creativity and research, please visit www.oscar.virginia.edu. Did you miss a show? Then go to www.wtju.net and click on “blogs & pods” or visit www.cvillepodcast.com. Question about this program; please call WTJU at 434-924-0885 or email at wtju@virginia.edu.

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