October 2005

New Professors Forsyth and Williamson Take the Lead


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.”