Villanova was founded on the Augustinian ideals of Veritas, Unitas and Caritas, Truth, Unity and Love, and seeks to foster these ideals throughout our community. You are welcome here. It should go without saying, but recent events locally and around world suggest that we take nothing for granted. No matter your race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, political ideology or any other identity, the Villanova community embraces you.

As we approach a well-deserved fall break, I want to let every member of our community know that I stand with you. My colleague and friend Dr. Terry Nance, Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, stands with you. University leadership across campus stands with you. Your professors and classmates stand with you. Villanova seeks to foster love and respect throughout our community, and all are welcome here. 

 

From an intellectual and emotional perspective, initiatives such as our DEI Roundtables and Peer Mentorship Groups seek to build a welcoming and inclusive community in which students, faculty and staff can feel safe being their authentic selves. From a practical standpoint, our Department of Public Safety also offers a range of resources to provide a safe and secure environment, from the Nova Safe app to the new Nova Van On Demand, which debuts in November. 

 

This issue of our newsletter highlights a number of opportunities to build community and shares a wealth of academic and student life resources to help you make the most of your Villanova experience. 

 

I hope you are able to enjoy a restful, safe and fun fall break. Be well, mind, body and spirit. 

Young children have remarkable capacities for causal reasoning, which are part of the foundation of their scientific thinking abilities. In their new book, Constructing Science: Connecting Causal Reasoning to Scientific Thinking in Young Children, Villanova Psychology Assistant Professor Deena Skolnick Weisberg, PhD, and co-author David M. Sobel, PhD, of Brown University, trace the ways young children’s sophisticated causal reasoning abilities combine with other cognitive, metacognitive and social factors to develop into a more mature set of scientific thinking abilities. READ MORE

Runa Annasdotter Neely ’21 MA, a recent Villanova Political Science graduate, earned a Fulbright U.S. Student Program Award for 2022-23. Neely will spend her Fulbright year in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, working on a research project exploring women’s political representation.

“I’ve always wanted to work with questions relating to women’s rights. My Fulbright research allows me to do this, as I will be working hands on with women’s political rights and inclusion issues,” she says. “Hopefully this is only the start of a long career working with these topics from both a research and policy perspective.” READ MORE

Judith Giesberg, PhD, Robert M. Birmingham Chair in the Humanities and Professor of History in Villanova University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, received a 2022 National Endowment Public Scholars Fellowship, including $60,000 in funding for one year. The fellowship supports the research, writing and other activities of individual authors in pursuit of publishing well-researched, nonfiction books in the humanities written for a wide public audience.

Dr. Giesberg is director of the “Last Seen: Finding Family After Slavery” project, which offers access to thousands of “Information Wanted” advertisements placed in newspapers by former slaves. Over the years, Dr. Giesberg and her students have gathered the 19th century ads in one place and digitized them, giving genealogists and researchers a new tool for telling family stories of separation and survival during slavery, emancipation and the Civil War. The grant will support work Dr. Giesberg's upcoming book on this topic. READ MORE

Did you return to Villanova for graduate school? A research team in the Department of Education and Counseling is seeking participants to share their experience transitioning into a graduate school program at their alma mater. The study will consist of a 20-minute Zoom interview with all data collected in a deidentified, anonymous protocol. If interested in learning more and participating, please e-mail graduate research assistant Amanda Galczyk.

Looking for a quiet place to write, read and catch up on work over Fall Break? The Center for Graduate Research and Education invites you to St. Mary’s Hall for Fall Breakout, a dedicated time and space for all graduate and professional students to write, read and socialize. The Grad Center will be providing food and drinks throughout the day, so when you need a break from whatever you are working on, you can mingle with other students, build community and relax a bit, as well! Classrooms 163 A, B and C in St. Mary’s Hall are reserved during Fall Breakout for graduate and professional students only. If are interested in joining us, please use this form to register so the Grad Center can get enough food.

Help us spread the word! Our Virtual Open House will begin at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, October 18. At this event, prospective graduate students will have the opportunity to speak with faculty and students from their programs of interest and get answers to their questions about financial aid, application requirements, deadlines and more. Open House is a great way for prospective students to learn more about our programs and see if Villanova is a good fit for them. Learn more.

From 12 to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, October 19, the Center for Research and Fellowships (CRF) is presenting a short information session to learn more about how CRF supports master’s and doctoral students at each stage of their professional journey—from writing a successful grant proposal to being admitted to a doctoral program. Attendees will also gain insight into the research funding landscape at Villanova and beyond. Learn more and register.

The Fall 2022 Falvey Forum is a series of virtual workshops dedicated to advancing research tips, techniques and technologies. The theme this semester is "Dealing with Data," and each session is conducted online from 12 to 1 p.m. Learn more and register. Upcoming sessions include:

Join the monthly Survivors Supporting Survivors listening circle to connect with other student survivors. Open to any interested student of all identities with the ability to opt in or opt out at any time. Learn more.

Please join us for our annual Graduate Research Symposium beginning at 1 p.m. on Friday, November 11 in the Connelly Center to celebrate the work of students who received a Summer Research Fellowship. For this symposium, students were invited to use the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) format to submit a three-minute video about their work. Students were instructed to prepare to address a broad, non-specialist audience. The symposium will feature live oral and poster presentations from the top submissions along with a meet and greet with the presenters and graduate faculty. Oral presentations will take place in the Connelly Cinema followed by poster presentations in the Art Gallery. Refreshments will be served and we look forward to seeing you there! Learn more.

Campus Ministry and Falvey Library invite the Villanova community to join them for a taste of mindfulness meditation every Monday from 1 to 1:30 p.m. on Zoom. Mindfulness Mondays offers a virtual, comfortable space where you are guided and encouraged to stop and focus on the “here and now.” Mindfulness is proven to reduce stress and enhance well-being. Registration is not required, all are welcome! Learn more.

Working on your dissertation or thesis? Organizing your portfolio defense? Writing a paper for class?

Please let the Grad Center know if you are interested in joining an Accountability or Topical Writing Group. They will group you with other graduate students and provide you with support, community and accountability as you work towards completing your program. Please use this form to sign up for a writing group based on your interests and needs.

Any campus student who tests positive is expected to isolate for five days, per CDC guidance, and notify the Student Health Center at covidsurvey@villanova.edu as soon as possible (as well as their professors if they will miss class, as with any illness). Once the College is notified, the student's faculty and program director receive a notification from Brooke Erdman regarding their extended absence from campus. Learn more.