Matthew Bailey, Professor of Spanish at Washington and Lee University, will give a talk on his latest research titled “The Medieval Cast of Las Mocedades del Cid”. He will explore how the 17th-century play Las mocedades del Cid, by Guillén de Castro, transforms the legendary characters of medieval Spanish epic, Rodrigo Díaz (el Cid) and his wife Ximena.
Kristin Nowell, with the Cat Specialist Group, will discuss the illegal trade of big cats, which poses a grave threat, driven by financial motivations of those who poach, sell, and buy. The black market for each species is driven to varying degrees by supply (both from the wild and from modern industrial captive breeding or “farming”) and by consumer demand. These drivers include potential and actual costs of rural people living near predators, which pose risks to life and livestock-based livelihoods, and perceived social status value on the part of relatively wealthy urban consumers, who are often motivated by sellers putting a modern spin on ancient traditions. Regulatory and enforcement efforts undertaken by governments over the past 25 years through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) have achieved limited success, which could be undermined by one of the outcomes of negotiations at last year’s meeting. Sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.
Contact: Lia Morris, escoordinator@colby.edu, 207-859-5356
Environmental studies alumnus Joel Alex ’08 shares his path from Colby to owning and operating North America’s largest floor malting facility. From community mapping to declining admittance to graduate school, Alex will talk about and answer questions on his experiences and insights while applying sustainable development principles at home. Alex founded and runs Blue Ox Malthouse in Lisbon Falls, Maine. He sits on the boards of the North American Craft Maltsters Guild and The Ecology School, where he previously worked as an ecology educator, and has diverse professional backgrounds in education, community mapping/GIS, and conservation land management. Sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.
Contact: Lia Morris, escoordinator@colby.edu, 207-859-5356
Jeannette Unite is a visual artist who is immersed in the materiality of the art-making process, whether it’s using her own large, handmade chalk-based pastels with mineral oxides or using similar metal oxides in glass artworks, paintings, or prints. She uses images, information, and metaphors from mining as a point of departure for her reflections on her own personal journeys.
She travels to mining and industrial sites for samples, to research and photographically record evidence of the residual remains of power, industrialization, and neo-colonialism on the African landscape. She studied towards a B.F.A. at the Michaelis School of Art, University of Cape Town, and studied further at UNISA while teaching at Frank Joubert Art Centre until demand for her artwork propelled her into full-time art practice. She continues to live and work in, and travel from, her studio in Cape Town. Sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program.
Contact: Lia Morris, escoordinator@colby.edu, 207-859-5356
As part of the annual humanities theme, Origins, the Colby Symphony Orchestra presents works by three German masters: Wagner’s The Overture and the dramatic “Pilgrim’s Chorus” from Tannhäuser; Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn; and Beethoven’s timeless Sixth Symphony, The Pastoral, which abounds with sounds and images of the German countryside.
Contact: Deb Ward, djward@colby.edu, 207-859-5670
Robert Gelbard ’64 is an international business consultant specializing in project development and implementation, crisis management, and risk analysis. During his prior career in the U.S. Foreign Service, Gelbard held numerous senior foreign policy positions, including as President Clinton’s Special Representative for the Balkans, Ambassador to Indonesia and East Timor, Ambassador to Bolivia, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (including responsibility for counter-terrorism), Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs, Deputy Assistant Secretary for South America, Director for Southern Africa, and Deputy Director for Western Europe. Sponsored by the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs.
Contact: Amanda Cooley, goldfarb@colby.edu, 207-859-5319
Two New York Times investigative reporters, Matt Apuzzo ’01 and Adam Goldman, discuss the latest in the special counsel investigation, the perils of covering national security, and covering the new Washington. Apuzzo and Goldman are Pulitzer-winning reporters in the Washington bureau of the Times. The discussion will be moderated by Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government Sandy Maisel. Sponsored by the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs.
Contact: Amanda Cooley, goldfarb@colby.edu, 207-859-5319
Practice for a Colby Dancers routine
Extra session for EC335 Topics in Economics of Development
Annual Training for a volunteer program.