The WVU Humanities Center and the Religious Studies program invite the campus community to attend a presentation entitled “Feeling is Believing: A New Approach to Conspiracy Theory” at 4:30 p.m. Monday, March 4, in the Downtown Library’s Milano Room.
In this talk, Donovan Schaefer, an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, will examine what makes people believe and how science and disinformation battle to convince us. He’ll also raise the question of why the apocalyptic discourse of conspiracy theory has risen to prominence in our current political moment.
Schaefer brings a new way of assessing the relationship between thinking and feeling, suggesting that we see them as deeply interrelated rather than fundamentally separate. Shifting our frame of reference allows us to draw a clearer map of how and why conspiracy theories have managed to gain such a powerful hold in contemporary society.
Schaefer is the author of “Religious Affects: Animality, Evolution, and Power” and “Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin.” His research and teaching examine the role of affect and power in formations of secularism, religion, science and material culture.
The WVU Humanities Center and the Religious Studies program are co-sponsoring a workshop for faculty titled “Affect, Teaching, and Academic Transformation” from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday, March 4, in the Downtown Library’s Milano Room.
Donovan Schaefer, an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, will lead the workshop. Participants will explore the overlaps between affect/emotion and teaching, especially in light of Academic Transformation at WVU. They will delve into questions, such as: What impact has Academic Transformation had on our emotional lives within (and outside) the classroom? Are there ways to specifically address this affective dimension of teaching in order to better serve both faculty and students?
Schaefer is the author of “Religious Affects: Animality, Evolution, and Power” and “Wild Experiment: Feeling Science and Secularism after Darwin.” His research and teaching examine the role of affect and power in formations of secularism, religion, science and material culture.
This event is limited to 20 participants and lunch will be provided. Registration is required. Please RSVP to humanitiescenter@mail.wvu.edu and include any dietary preferences or allergies.
WVU Libraries would like to survey active users of their website. The feedback will help the Libraries improve the usability of their website and search features. This survey will take approximately 8 to 10 minutes to complete. Please complete in one session. To participate visit wvulib.wufoo.com/forms/search-user-experience-survey/.
WVU Facilities has planned a steam outage for the Downtown Library and other downtown buildings for Monday and Tuesday, December 18 and 19. Consequently, the Downtown Library will be closed to the public for part of that time. The Library will be open Monday, December 18, from 8 a.m. to noon. It will be closed Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday, December 19. The Library will resume normal intersession hours – 8 a.m.-5 p.m. – on Wednesday, December 20. Please check the Libraries’ website for updated operating hours.
The West Virginia and Regional History Center extends an open invitation to celebrate the opening of the new exhibition, “Women Making History: Showcasing the West Virginia Feminist Activist Collection,” on Monday, October 16, at 5 p.m. in WVU’s Downtown Library.
The program begins at 5 p.m. with tours of the exhibit in the History Center and a concurrent reception in the Milano Room. At 6 p.m., WVU Professor Emerita Judith Stitzel and Jessie Wilkerson, associate professor of history in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, will deliver remarks in the Milano Room. Following the speakers, the exhibit will remain open for viewing until 8 p.m.
This is a hybrid event. Those unable to attend in person can register for the zoom at wvu.libcal.com/event/10941362.
WVU Libraries will launch an Art in the Libraries’ exhibit on library transformation with featured speaker Emily Drabinski, president of the American Library Association, September 12 from 4-6 p.m. at the Downtown Library.
The exhibit, titled “Hacking the Library”, was designed around the hacker ethos in the positive sense regarding the ability to deconstruct and reconstruct information systems. Hacking starts with reconceptualizing libraries beyond the book.
“’Hacking the Library’ invites us to think about our institutions as places of engagement and transformation,” Drabinski said. “As buildings and collections, they may look fixed in place. But as sites of research and study, exploration and imagination, libraries are also always in motion. From the classification structures that group like with like to the copy machines that are always in need of repair, libraries are always subject to change.”
Drabinski is Critical Pedagogy Librarian at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She publishes and presents widely on topics related to knowledge organization, information literacy, and critical perspectives in librarianship. Drabinski edits “Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies,” a book series from Library Juice Press/Litwin Books. She is a contributing writer at “Truthout.”
West Virginia UniversityLibraries will host the Women of Appalachia Project’s (WOAP) “Women Speak,” a presentation of story, poetry and song showcasing women artists from throughout the Appalachian region, April 22 from 1-3 p.m. in the Downtown Library’s Milano Reading Room.
The performance will center around “Women Speak: Volume Eight,” a lavish mix of Appalachian female voices – northern, central, southern, Affrilachian, Indigenous, AppalAsian, LQBTQ, those differently abled and with developmental differences, emerging and well established – every voice raised in tribute to Appalachian endurance, honor, courage, love of family, community and the land. Copies are available online at www.sheilanagigblog.com.
The exhibit, which won Dang the 2022 WVU Art in the Libraries’ Graduate Student Exhibit Award, will be on display in the Graduate Commons through August. Dang a PhD candidate in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design.
This award is presented annually for outstanding research papers in the humanities or social sciences. Winners will be awarded $1,000 and be recognized publicly by the University and the Libraries.
To be eligible, applicants must be a student enrolled at West Virginia University as a full-time undergraduate student in good academic standing; conducted original research using resources from the West Virginia University Libraries; and used this research to produce a paper that reflects individual work, not that of a group or class project.
“Ingram’s writing gives depth and perspective to those deep vulnerabilities that make us human. In his hands, we’re led into a poignant rendering of modern life with all its foibles, complexities, and quiet, hard-won joys,” Humanities Center Director Renée Nicholson said.
Ingram’s stories, essays, and journalism have appeared in a number of publications, including PHOEBE, The North American Review, The Smart Set and Medium’s Human Parts. Ingram is also an associate professor of instruction at Temple University, where he teaches courses in creative writing, editing and publishing, and first-year writing.
Are you an instructor who is concerned about the impact of high textbook costs for your students’ academic success? WVU Libraries will host a virtual Open Textbook Workshop and Textbook Review on March 9 at 10 a.m. that will help instructors explore possible open textbook solutions to this growing financial issue.
Click here to complete an application. Registration deadline is Friday.
Nieman will return to campus to read from her latest novel, “In the Lonely Backwater,” recipient of the Sir Walter Raleigh Award, North Carolina’s top prize for fiction, and other of her works of prose and poetry.
“Valerie Nieman is a dynamic figure in the vibrant literary history and landscape of West Virginia,” Humanities Center Director Renee Nicholson said. “It’s really an honor to be part of the celebration of her archive.”
The exhibit includes Moretz’s work alongside zero-waste designs by students in her fashion design management course. Moretz, associate professor of Fashion, Dress & Merchandising in the Davis College, won the 2022 Art in the Libraries Faculty Exhibit Award.
Instead of one organized gathering for volunteers to revise content on Wikipedia posts, participants are encouraged to set their own schedules to edit pages over the 31-day span. To cap off the month-long initiative, the Downtown Library will host an in-person editing event on Thursday, March 30, from 1-5 p.m.
As part of its mission, the Art in the Libraries Committee wants to highlight the art and scholarship of WVU graduate students. The Committee invites current graduate students to submit ideas for consideration for an exhibit to visually showcase their scholarship in new and experimental ways.
These can present a visual evolution of their work, visualize their research and influences, or answer a research question. Proposals should be based on their academic or creative research and lend themselves to visual interpretation with Library consultation.
“The goals of these awards are to provide a multidisciplinary platform for deeper learning, foster intellectual discourse and discussion and demonstrate the breadth of WVU’s creative and innovative activity,” Libraries Exhibit Coordinator Sally Brown said.
As part of West Virginia UniversityLibraries’Art in the Libraries series of exhibits of personal collections, Frankie Tack, Clinical Associate Professor in Counseling and Well-Being, shares a selection of the most common tool in the world, the hammer, in a display at Evansdale Library.
Tack’s collection of over 100 hammers ranges from a pre-colonial Native American hammer stone to hammers used by jewelers, cobblers, coopers, clockmakers, blacksmiths, masons, shipwrights, farriers, and even cigar smokers and, of course, an array of standard claw hammers from the 19th century to present.
The collection began when Tack came into possession of her father-in-law’s tools after his death. He was a farmer and a loom fixer in textiles when we still had those plants in the U.S. The collection, she soon found, also included his father’s tools.
The Art in the Libraries Committee and Dean of Libraries Karen Diaz selected Lilly Adkins, a junior double majoring in painting and sculpture, and Kieah Hamric, a sophomore majoring in graphic design, to receive the 2022 Dean of Libraries’ Student Arts Award.
Lilly Adkins
Adkins won for her work titled “Detroit Fox Theater 1934 to 2022.” This mixed media painting compares the same area, nearly 100 years apart, emerging from times of turmoil.
A Sensory Safe Space opened this semester on the Downtown Library’s first floor. The space is comprised of low-lighting, soft seating, plants, and wall-hangings meant to soften the space. Additionally, users can check out noise-cancelling headphones and personal white noise machines. The space is not reservable and is open to students, faculty and staff.
The project is the result of planning and work by the Downtown Library Access Services Team for the Libraries’ Development Day. A huge thank you goes to team members Hilary Fredette, Andrea McDaniel, Hattie Murphy, Savannah Owens, Sam Rahall, and James Shaver.
In conjunction with its “Indigenous Appalachia” exhibit, WVU Libraries welcomes everyone to attend a virtual panel with five artists featured in the exhibit Friday, Jan. 27, at noon.
“Indigenous Appalachia,” currently on display in the Downtown Library, is designed to increase awareness of the contributions of Indigenous Appalachians to the region’s shared history and present while also recognizing continuing injustices faced by Indigenous people.
The panel will include Nadema Agard (Cherokee/Powhatan), painting; Connor Alexander (Cherokee) game design; Erin Lee Antonak (Oneida), sculpture/drawing; April Branham (Monacan), painting/photography; and Ethan Brown (Pamunkey) gourd design/painting. The event will be moderated by Sally Brown, WVU Libraries exhibits coordinator and the exhibit’s lead curator.
Evansdale Library Director Martha Yancey (second from the left) poses with Meshea Poore, vice president and chief diversity officer for the WVU Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Amena Anderson, assistant director of the WVU ADVANCE Center; Karen Diaz, dean of WVU Libraries; and Maryann Reed, WVU provost.
Yancey has worked for WVU Libraries since 1996. She is also the Access, User Services, and Resource Sharing Librarian, and the subject liaison for African American Children’s Literature, Children’s Literature, Counseling, and Education. She is the Chair of the Open Educational Resources Committee and was instrumental in the creation of the WVU Libraries Diversity Residency Program. She is a former President of the Western Pennsylvania & West Virginia Chapter of the Association of College and Research Libraries and the West Virginia Library Association. In 2014, her research was published in the Journal of Information Literacy.
Though Yancey initially planned to become a public librarian, she worked as a school media specialist and teacher before her career as an academic librarian at WVU. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, gardening, and collecting dishware. Her collection has previously been on display at Evansdale Library.
