Belgrave Wins PACME Award
 Congratulations to Faye Belgrave, professor in the Department of Psychology, who is the winner of the 2014 Presidential Awards for Community Multicultural Enrichment (PACME) Faculty Award. In addition, Jensen Larimore, a psychology student, was the winner of this year's PACME Student Award. The ceremony will be held on Wed., April 16, at 3 p.m., in the Richmond Salons. This ceremony was created to recognize members of the university who have contributed to diversity, multiculturalism and inclusive excellence. |
Reading and Writing Groups
The Humanities Research Center invites proposals for interdisciplinary reading and writing groups that will convene two or three times a semester, starting in Fall 2014, to discuss work-in-progress and published scholarship of common interest to the group. The Center will assume responsibility for scheduling, booking rooms, etc. If you would like to propose a group, please email rgodbeer@miami.edu by April 21 with a title for the group, a brief paragraph describing its intellectual scope, and a list of at least six colleagues who are interested in joining and willing to participate with some regularity. |
RamTech Store Now Open
 The RamTech Store on Grace Street is now open. RamTech will sell laptops, desktops, tablets and other technology products to students, faculty and staff with a valid VCU ID. As an Apple Authorized Campus Store, all of the Apple, as well as Dell, technology products will be available at educational discount prices. Accessories, such as adapters and cases, will also be available. VCU News has more. |
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STS@VCU Lecture on STEM
 The next lecture in the STS@VCU Lecture Series, Science Education, Past and Present is Friday, April 18 at 3:30 p.m. in the Commons Theater. Ainissa Ramirez, author, science evangelist, and TED speaker, will give a lecture on STEM: How It Got Here and Where It Needs To Go. Add this event to your calendar.
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Farrell Study Featured
 Nicholas P. Farrell, professor in the Department of Chemistry, and his research team have conducted a study whose findings may help develop targeted drug interventions and fight cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. The study is featured on the cover of the April issue of the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition. “The work is unique in helping to open up a broad new area of research which we call the bioinorganic chemistry of apoptosis...” Farrell said. Read more about the project here. |
Library Survey of Faculty Needs
VCU Libraries is conducting a first-ever survey of faculty needs in the digital age. The questions go beyond "library services" but are focused on publishing, researching and teaching in the digital world. The survey is open April 7 through April 18. Take the survey. |
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Student Nominates Jeff London
 Jeffrey London, instructor in the Department of Sociology, has been nominated for a Phi Kappa Phi Great Minds recognition award by his student, Katherine Smith-Rodden. He and Katherine will be honored at the Spring meeting of Phi Kappa Phi at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on Thursday, April 24. |
Latané Wins Book Prize
 Professor David Latané’s William Maginn and the British Press is a joint winner of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals’ Robert and Vineta Colby Scholarly Book Prize for 2013, awarded to scholarly books that most advance the understanding of the 19th-century British newspaper or periodical press. Winners are invited to speak at the upcoming RSVP conference at the University of Delaware in September. Congratulations, David! |
Stanciu wins Reese Fellowship
 Cristina Stanciu, assistant professor in the Department of English, has won a competitive Reese Fellowship in American Bibliography and the History of the Book at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. Cristina will spend the December 2014 break in residence at Yale working on her book manuscript, The Making and Unmaking of Americans: Indians and Immigrants in American Literature and Culture, 1880-1924. Congratulations Cristina! |
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AKD Induction Ceremony
The Alpha Kappa Delta Sociology honor society's VCU chapter is holding its annual induction ceremony, in coordination with the Senior Seminar poster session for Sociology students, which highlights their independent social research. The ceremony will be begin at 10 a.m. on Thursday, April 24th in the Commons Underground, with a presentation from Jenny Rockwell from the Neighborhood Resource Center. Light refreshments will be served. |
Be a VAS Judge
VCU will host the 2014 Virginia Academy of Science (VAS)/ Virginia Junior Academy of Science (VJAS) meeting from Tuesday May 13 through Friday May 16. The VJAS consists of presentations by high school and middle school students, organized by topic and section. VCU is looking for judges on Wednesday, May 14. If you are willing to judge, please contact VJAS director Susan Booth at susan.science@gmail.com. Read more details about the event on our blog. |
The Once and Future Don Quixote
 The School of World Studies hosts the presentation Knight Passages: The Once and Future Don Quixote featuring Professor Edward H. Friedman on April 21, 2014 at 12 p.m. in the Commons Forum Room. Professor Friedman is a Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Spanish and Professor of Comparative Literature at Vanderbilt University and the Director of the Robert Penn Warren Center for Humanities at Vanderbilt University. Add this event to your calendar.
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VCU Students Win Journalism Awards
VCU students won three first-place awards and were finalists for 13 other awards in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence competition for Region 2. The awards were presented at SPJ’s Region 2 Spring Conference in Washington, D.C. The Robertson School has more on this story. |
Alexandrian Society Spring Symposium
 The Alexandrian Society will be holding their Spring Symposium on Wednesday, April 23rd, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. in the Commons Theater. The symposium title is Race and Society in the Atlantic World - view the flyer here. Add this event to your calendar.
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VSSA Conference This Weekend
 VCU will host the 87th Annual Virginia Social Science Association Conference on Friday, April 18 and Saturday, April 19 to promote work in the social sciences, offer students opportunities for professional development and bring together teachers of the social sciences. Friday's presentations will be held in the Richmond Salons of the Student Commons. Add Friday's event to your calendar. Plenary sessions and concurrent sessions will be held on Saturday in Hibbs Building. Add Saturday's event to your calendar. You can view the full VSSA Conference program here. |
Marry Kapp Lecture in Chemistry
 The Department of Chemistry hosts the 37th Annual Mary Kapp Lecture on Thursday, April 24 featuring Dr. Naomi Halas, Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of Chemistry, Physics and Bioengineering at Rice University. Dr. Halas will present Optics at the Nanoscale: Shedding Light on Cross-cutting Science and Technologies at 6 p.m. in room 1107 of the Academic Learning Commons.
Add this event to your calendar.
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World Studies Research Symposium
Seniors in the School of World Studies will showcase their best work, which will include research from Senior Seminar, internship experience, service learning work or any other academic research, at the first ever SWS Senior Research Symposium & Poster Expo. on Friday, April 25 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the VCU Globe Living/Learning Building, Room 1030J. Add this event to your calendar.
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Keep your colleagues informed
More than half of the faculty and staff of the College consistently read this newsletter. If you have news to share this is a great place to do it! Our news and event forms automatically forward to Gregg Johnson, Shirley McDaniel and to VCU News. We will submit your news and events to the VCU Calendar, Telegram, this newsletter and our social media outlets. Keep your colleagues informed by keeping us informed! |
Zewelanji Serpell, associate professor in the Department of Psychology, is the first member of faculty profiled in a new series titled 
Brian Daugherity, assistant professor in the Department of History, specializes in civil rights issues. His current research focuses on the history of school desegregation and southern race relations. He recently spoke with WTVR CBS 6 News about hate groups in Virginia, three of which are in Richmond. “Not only are these hate groups continuing to exist and promote teachings that are opposed to the values of many of us today, they also cultivate an environment or an attitude that leads some people to act out in such a violent manner.” 
