Marva wins the University of Virginia 2008 Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Award for her “demonstrated excellence and dedication in helping junior faculty members succeed at the University both within and across departments and/or schools.” Read her thoughts about mentoring.

Invited by the Shakespeare Theatre Company to introduce their staged reading of Hugo’s Ruy Blas on December 9, 2007, Marva helped audience members understand why Hugo wrote this play, how theater made Hugo the leader of the French Romantic movement, and why Ruy Blas remains important. Here is a brief excerpt:

Beyond writing an engaging drama with a plot full of twists & turns and a compelling love story, Hugo with Ruy Blas cleverly—and safely—criticized the monarchy and aristocracy.  By setting the play in late seventeenth-century Spain, Hugo evaded censorship, as he did not seem to be writing about his own time or his own country.

But Hugo imbued his young Ruy Blas with qualities that predict the future that Hugo envisioned for the French—and, ultimately, for everyone. Ruy Blas—a man of the people, a former student now reduced to earning his living as a lackey, the most menial of domestic servants—grows in stature after he finds himself unexpectedly disguised as a noble.  His speech to Spain’s ministers in Act III foreshadows Hugo’s increasing belief that common people—people such as you and I—can and should govern ourselves.  But can Ruy Blas keep hold of his own soul in this world of intrigue, greed, and vengeance?

With this play, Victor Hugo at age 36 held up a mirror to a monarchical system of government in decline. He articulated key themes—liberty, democracy, and conscience—that would resonate through his later literary works, such as Les Misérables, as well as through his legislative speeches, and the public letters he wrote during his nineteen-year exile as a critic of Napoleon III.  Recognizing that artistic freedom promotes social freedom, Hugo fought for both—and he saw Shakespeare as a fellow playwright who claimed total artistic freedom.

The Shakespeare Company’s Rediscovery Series, led by Artistic Director Michael Kahn, investigates rarely produced classics, choosing some for new translation and mainstage productions.

Marva hosts Québecois singer and songwriter Alain Lecompte in his one-man show HUGO LIVE. 

Through this engrossing concert, Lecompte presents the legendary Victor Hugo with humor and sensitivity.  By thoughtfully and imaginatively setting 27 of Hugo’s poems to original music, Alain Lecompte introduces us in French to the famous poet and social critic, author of Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

Much more than a simple compilation of songs, this 90-minute musical tells the story of Hugo’s life and loves, his deep belief in liberty and peace, and the power of his convictions in the face of tyranny.  Concert program notes in English summarize each poem’s meaning while explaining how it fits within Hugo’s life and thought, making this world music event accessible to non-French speakers, as well as to beginning French students. 

Read a biography of the artist Alain Lecompte here.

October 14, 2005, 8:00 p.m., Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia
&
April 16, 2010, University of Virginia Chapel
as part of the Colloquium on Hugo and Other Writers in Exile

Free, thanks to the generous support of the Maison Française, Department of French, Department of Music, and the College of Arts & Sciences.

November 8-22, 2002
By Sarah Marchetti, UVAToday

As director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, Marva Barnett has given many awards to distinguished faculty. Now she is the one being honored: the U.Va. Women’s Center will present her with its annual Elizabeth Zintl Leadership Award.

Along with founding and directing the Center for Teaching Excellence, Barnett teaches in the French Department and currently is researching cultural differences in learning.

“She is upbeat, optimistic and always eager to foster the talents of others, make sure the University community benefits from their talents and celebrate others’ accomplishments,” said Cassandra Fraser, an associate professor of chemistry.

Through the center, Barnett has created workshops on specific teaching topics and initiated several teaching award programs, including the NEH Distinguished Teaching Professorship and the University Teaching Fellowships. She also wrote a handbook, “Teaching at the University of Virginia,” which has served as a model for handbooks at several other universities.

The leadership award annually recognizes women working at U.Va. whose professionalism, creativity and commitment mirror the extraordinary service that the late Elizabeth Zintl gave to the University as the president’s chief of staff until her death in 1997. The $1,000 prize is supported by a gift from the late David A. Harrison III, one of the University’s most generous benefactors. Past recipients include Shirley Menaker, associate provost for academic support; Claire Cronmiller, associate professor of biology; and Louise Dudley, assistant vice president of university relations; Dr. Sharon Hostler, director of the Kluge Children’s Rehabiliation Center; and Patricia Lampkin, vice president for student affairs, and Sylvia Terry, associate dean of African-American Affairs.

“I was surprised and pleased to receive the award,” Barnett said. “I was also honored because the past recipients are superb.

“Really, this is an award to the Center for Teaching Excellence and all the people I work with,” she added.

Arts & Sciences Dean Edward Ayers said he often recommends graduate students visit the center. “Invariably, the graduate students return to tell me of how much they have learned and how grateful they are for Marva’s patience, honesty and knowledge of the craft of teaching. Multiply that by hundreds of times and a dozen years and you get an idea of Marva’s impact,” said Ayers, adding that he could not imagine the University without Barnett’s commitment to teaching.

Barnett’s programs also reach faculty. The University Teaching Fellowships program, for example, matches junior faculty with senior mentors. The program helps young professors learn to find the synergy between research, teaching and service and develops their leadership skills.

“As a junior faculty fellow in this program and as a senior faculty mentor to colleagues, I’ve found the program to be an enormously rewarding, even life-transforming arena for collaboration and debate,” said English professor Jahan Ramazani.

Barnett said she will use the Zintl award money to defray some of the costs of her recent trip to speak at the Norwegian National Conference on Quality Reform in Higher Education, held at Agder University College in Norway.

In addition to helping others teach, Barnett still finds time to teach French to undergraduates in a 300-level course, The Reading and Writing of Texts, a major requirement.