We are an inclusive academic community committed to excellence in the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge. We advance intellectual and creative discovery through transformative learning experiences that positively impact our lives and communities.
Dr. Bob Kolvoord
Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
A Message from the Interim Provost
Dear Colleagues,
As we come to the end of another week, I’ve been struck by the beauty of both the campus and our weather (and being able to walk across campus without self-laundering my shirt has been much appreciated!). I hope you can take a moment this weekend and detach from work and relax.
With the Fall semester starting to unfold, I wanted to share something from the opening Academic Affairs meeting—a reminder of where we’ve been and where we’re headed.
You may remember that in my annual evaluation last spring, you were asked to respond with 2-3 words that described the culture of Academic Affairs. While some of you were a bit more generous in your contributions (57 words was the longest!), this word cloud gives us a sense of where we were last May.
To me, it shows both that we made some significant progress and that we’ve still got things to work on, and we are engaging in that work. Now on to this week’s highlights.
- I see so many examples of our excellent faculty skillfully incorporating their research into their teaching. In a recent example, Dr. Becca Howes-Mischel and Dr. Megan Tracy, both professors of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology, recently published in Interembodiment: Relational Living and Interconnected Thinking, a special volume of the Social Science & Medicine Their article “Interembodiment Beyond Kin: Leveraging Partibility within Microbial FemTech,” reviews how FemTech companies are trying leverage microbiome research to make new consumer products to address gender challenges by going back to classic theory in making sense of these emergent tech projects. Undergraduate students in the Gender and Science Ethnography helped collect and analyze data presented in the article.
- There is also interesting collaboration taking place in the College of Business. Dr. Adam Vanhove, associate professor in the School of Strategic Leadership Studies, recently involved two students in research around how well different machine learning (ML) models work when used in human resources, like hiring or employee evaluation. The resulting article, “Classification Performance of Supervised Machine Learning to Predict Human Resource Management Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis Using Cross-Classified Multilevel Modeling,” was published in the FT50 journal Human Resource Management. The trio found, among other things, that including more data can help improve results, but only if the data is meaningful and that bigger sample sizes don’t make a big difference. Overall, the study provides helpful advice for building better, more reliable ML tools in HR.
- What’s in a name? Quite a lot, according to Dr. Alan Levinovitz, professor of Religion at JMU, and his colleague, Dr. Awais Aftab, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at CWRU. Their work on the therapeutic power of naming a diagnosis, “The Rumpelstiltskin Effect: Therapeutic Repercussions of Clinical Diagnosis,” recently appeared in the Cambridge University Press-published BJPsych Bulletin. This feature story explains more.
- I’ve highlighted quite a few Academic Affairs staff members for completion of the Advanced Administrative Assistant Certificate Program and Administrative Assistant Certificate Program. There are a few more this week.
- Congratulations go to Leigh Anne Losh, Operations Manager, Gilliam Center for Entrepreneurship, College of Business; Megan Loucks, Fiscal Technician, Department of Psychology; Brianna Robinette, Building Coordinator, College of Education; Jeremiah Spencer, Administrative Assistant, AAAD Studies Center; and Wanitta Mays, Administrative Assistant, Department of Health Professions.
It is great to see so many staff and faculty participating in professional development.
Fun fact: Every highlight featured this week was submitted by someone other than the person recognized. Send your own teaching, scholarship, awards, and any other accomplishments to provost@jmu.edu, too! I look forward to sharing more next week.
Sincerely,
Bob
Have Question for the Provost?
Academic Affairs faculty and staff can use the options below to contact the provost directly.
This is an open line of communication allowing faculty and staff to ask questions, but it is not a substitute from the crucial interactions they have with their academic unit head, department head and dean.
Students should contact AcademicQuestions@jmu.edu with questions.
