October 2005
Social psychologist
John Donelson Ross Forsyth and political scientist
Thad Williamson have already won accolades for their work since
joining the faculty at the beginning of the fall semester. One of
the nation’s leading scholars in the social psychology of group
dynamics, Forsyth left Virginia Commonwealth University to serve as
the Thorsness Chair in Ethical Leadership at Jepson. (Related
article.) Assistant Professor Williamson, who researches social
movements and economic and social justice issues, completed his
doctorate at Harvard in 2004 and subsequently served there as a
teaching fellow and lecturer before moving to Richmond.
Shortly after his arrival at the university, Forsyth
wrote an
article for Style Weekly, a popular local publication, in which he
delved into the psychology of the blame game in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina’s rendezvous with the Gulf Coast. Everyone from the little man
on the street to President Bush tried to dodge the blame for the slow,
inept response to one of the worst natural disasters ever to hit the
United States, Forsyth said. “But perhaps we are all to blame, if only
indirectly,” Forsyth concluded. “Each one of us must…take seriously
our social contract and its requirements that we care for others in
our community.”
Forsyth created a
Hurricane Katrina
Web site with links to news releases, analyses, leaders’
responses, social psychological commentaries, teaching suggestions and
his own personal insights on the disaster. He also maintains a
detailed Web site on his favorite field of study,
group dynamics.
He thinks about group dynamics all the time, Forsyth
said, even as it relates to his personal life. For example, when he
lived in one of Richmond’s most exclusive neighborhoods, he couldn’t
resist the temptation to grow his hair long just to see how it would
affect the group dynamics in his neighborhood.
“The neighbors looked at me funnier and funnier,” he
said, “and I liked it better and better. People read you based on your
appearance.”
The long hair triggered a different reaction in his
students at the time, however. “If you have long hair,” Forsyth said,
“Students think you’re easy-going and a little looser. Then when you
demand a lot from them, they feel misled, as if you’ve been practicing
false advertising.”
Forsyth also mentioned the group dynamics in the
small town of Montebello in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia,
where Forsyth and his wife and two children spend their summers in a
cabin. He described Montebello as a tight-knit mountain community
where “everyone has one of two last names.”
“It took a while,” Forsyth said, “but the locals have
finally come to accept us. In such a tight community, everybody knows
everything immediately. They know the minute we arrive for a visit.”
When he’s not researching, teaching or writing about
group dynamics, Forsyth enjoys renovating houses and gardening. “It’s
nice to get away from the mental work and do some physical work,” he
said. “I like the challenge.”
Like Forsyth, Williamson is passionate about his
research. This year the American Political Science Association named
him co-winner of the Harold D. Lasswell Award for the best doctoral
dissertation in the field of public policy. (Related
article.) He currently teaches Justice and Civil Society
(formerly Service to Society), a course with a substantial
experiential-education component that analyzes social issues such as
race, class and gender.
In his spare time, the six-foot-four Williamson
spends time writing about, playing and watching basketball. He grew up
in Chapel Hill, N.C.—his father was a history professor, dean of Arts
and Sciences and eventually provost at the University of North
Carolina—and counts himself a die-hard Tar Heels fan.
As a kid, Williamson worked the wooden
scoreboard—which he termed “a relic of a low-tech era”—during Tar Heel
basketball games. He saw basketball greats Michael Jordan, Kenny Smith
and Sam Perkins play up close. In 2001 he published his second book, "More
Than a Game: Why North Carolina Basketball Means So Much to So Many"—hardly
an esoteric, scholarly tome. In addition, he has written over 300
articles on basketball for print magazines and Internet Web sites.
This season he doesn’t plan to report on basketball,
Williamson said, due to his teaching and research commitments. “It
will be the first time in years that I can enjoy basketball as just a
fan again,” he said.
He’ll also have a little more time to indulge one of
his other hobbies, music. Williamson, who plays both trombone and
guitar, recently joined the university’s wind ensemble. And when he
gets together with his family, he teams up with his trombone-playing
brother and mother to produce a stirring rendition of “When the Saints
Go Marching In.” |