Quite a week!  Now that classes are cancelled on this bright, clear, sunny day, we have a moment of calm after the hurricane, thunder storm, and earthquake. So, check out the pictures of our new labs, classrooms, and other spaces just waiting to be used.… Read the rest

The newly renovated but still 100 year-old Monroe Hall came through Virginia’s August 23 magnitude 5.8 earthquake extremely well (elsewhere, there are cracks in the plaster walls of Virginia Hall, the stairwells in Combs Hall, and parts of GW Hall; serious – but not enough to close those buildings). Faculty in the building did a double-take, but then kept on working – till campus police threw us out an hour later! Belmont, Gari Melchers’ Home & Studio in Falmouth, suffered … Read the rest

We’ve had a hazardous start to the semester, though I wouldn’t call it disastrous… Geography has moved back into Monroe Hall and we think you will all LOVE the new space – and our 100-year-old building came though the earthquake (8/23/11) with no problems! On the GEOG 240 Natural Hazards blog page I’ve posted seismograph/seismogram images and some news about the severe thunderstorm on Thursday (8/25/11) and Hurricane Irene (8/27/11). Now we’re waiting for the swarm of locusts – … Read the rest

Maurice is round-faced, bespectacled, and jovial 27-year-old who works as a chef in a guesthouse in suburban Johannesburg. Since the guesthouse serves only breakfast, his working day here lasts only three hours. But his commute is long; he lives in Roodepoort, a town about 25 km west of Johannesburg, about a half hour drive away.  But Maurice doesn’t have a car; like most South Africans, he relies on minibus taxis to get around. These taxis ply fixed routes, and there… Read the rest

The 2011 UMW Study Abroad Program in South Africa has been on the road for just over a week. So far, we have visted the Pilanesberg Game Reserve, some rural informal settlements in Northwest Province, we have taken a walking tour of Johannesburg’s City Center, we have visited (and chatted with some of the resident of) Alexandra Township, and we have visited Constitution Hill (site of an apartheid-era prison as well as South Africa’s Constitutional Court.)

We have spent most … Read the rest

Wish you could travel with Donald Rallis and his students?  The next best thing is the course’s Facebook page:  UMW SA Study Abroad 2011!… Read the rest