Please sign up here if you would like lunch during the September Mini-Symposium. More information about the symposia is below.

The Mini-Symposia Series is a new extension of the Faculty and Staff Research Symposium. Spread across the academic year, it features four half-day events—two in the fall and two in the spring—designed to highlight and revisit presentations from the previous full symposium. The goal is to offer more opportunities to engage with colleagues’ work in a more focused and accessible format.

Four half-day symposia will take place throughout the academic year—two in the fall and two in the spring. These mini-symposia serve as curated showcases of talks and reimagined sessions from the previous year’s full-day symposium, giving attendees a chance to engage with presentations they may have missed.

Each symposium will feature interdisciplinary panels, roundtables, forums, and poster presentations. Participants might discuss elements of a current book project or an article; a program, initiative or partnership; an artwork or performance (with clips and examples); a current line of research experiments; an archive or digital project; a musical composition or a piece of creative writing; an experience in leadership or strategy — or any work in which they are engaged.

The 2025-2026 academic year will feature the Mini-Symposia on the following dates: Friday, September 26, 2025; Friday, November 7, 2025; Friday, January 30, 2026; and Friday, February 20, 2026.

The schedule for Friday, November 7, 2025, is as follows:

Session One: 10:30 - 11:45 a.m.

Panel 1: Drug Histories: Narrating Addiction in Policy and Practice

Chair: Kitty Maynard, Teaching and Scholarship Hub

Paul Rosenstein, Boatwright Memorial Library - Ozempic as Addiction Treatment: A Humanist Response

Laura Browder, Arts & Sciences, English, American Studies - Harry Anslinger, Heroin-addicted Racehorses, and the Rise of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics

Courtney Blondino, Arts & Sciences, Health Studies - Planning and Implementation of an Opioid Overdose Prevention Program at the University of Richmond

Panel 2: Bodies, Voices, and Authority: Gendered Perspectives from Stage to Scripture

Chair: Jamelle Wilson, School of Professional & Continuing Studies, Dean’s Office

Jennifer Cavenaugh, Arts & Sciences, Dean’s Office - "Say, Boss! You Seem Rare Frightened”: Sharon Pollock’s Assault on the Ripper Myth in Saucy Jack

Rhiannon Graybill, Arts & Sciences, Religious Studies - This Is Not My Beautiful Body

Jennifer Cable, Arts & Sciences, Music - The Whole Point Is Music: The Life and Work of Beverley Peck Johnson (1904-2001)

Crystal Hoyt, Jepson School of Leadership Studies - Strong Gender Egalitarian Beliefs Predict Biased Leadership Judgments

Lunch: 11:45 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.

Session Two: 1:30 - 2:45 p.m.

Panel 1: Sound, Data, and Place: Archiving American Music Scenes in the Digital Age

Chair: Kevin Pelletier, Arts & Sciences, English

Joanna Love, Arts & Sciences, Music

Rob Nelson, Digital Scholarship Lab

Andy McGraw, Arts & Sciences, Music

Panel 2: Performing Possibility: Ethics, Identity, and Innovation in the Digital Age

Chair: Mickey Quiñones, Robins School of Business, Dean’s Office

Patrick Martin, Arts & Sciences, Computer Science - The Art and Engineering of Human-Robot Dancing

Abbie Sadler, Robins School of Business, Accounting - A Greenwashing SPAC-tacle: Examining ESG Performance and Disclosures Through the Lens of Newly Public Firms

Abdullah Kumas, Robins School of Business; Accounting - Enhanced Information Access: How Investor Conferences Influence Institutional Trading Ahead of Takeover Announcements

Kathrin Bower, Arts & Sciences, Languages, Literatures, and Cultures - Mediated Postmigrant Comedy: Flipping the Script on Germanness and Belonging

November Mini-Symposium Lunch