A standout collegiate coach and decorated student-athlete at Kent State has been named the new head coach of Colby women’s basketball. Chenel Harris-Smith comes to Colby from St. Francis College in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she was associate head coach. “We are thrilled to welcome Coach Harris-Smith and her family to Colby,” said Jake Olkkola, the...
Elizabeth D. Leonard, the John J. and Cornelia V. Gibson Professor of History, has won the Thomas D. Clark Medallion Award for her most recent book, Slaves, Slaveholders, and a Kentucky Community’s Struggle toward Freedom, published by the University Press of Kentucky (UPK). “Much of what we know about Kentucky history and culture rests on...
Two first-year students, Andrew Ordentlich ’22 and Alex Ozols ’22, were awarded first place for their proposal to introduce climate visas to the United States at the inaugural Goldfarb Center Freedom of Expression Symposium. “We chose to focus on climate visas because we feel like it’s a very important aspect of immigration, throughout the world...
Professor of Art Véronique Plesch was active off campus during the spring semester. On Feb. 15 she was the organizer, chair, and respondent of the session “Beyond the Mirror: Specularity and Its Uses” at the 107th CAA Annual Conference in New York City. And in April she was invited to conduct a review of Trinity College’s Art History Program, which she undertook...
David E. Kelley, creator of popular and critically acclaimed shows from Ally McBeal to Big Little Lies, urged Colby College graduates to reject a career that is “not so terrible” and instead pursue what will make them truly fulfilled. A Waterville native and winner of multiple Emmy Awards for his television dramas, Kelley received a...
Civil rights attorney Mary L. Bonauto drew on her professional successes and failures to inspire Colby’s 2019 graduates to embrace the opportunities they encounter in life. “Wherever you’re headed next, I really hope you do remember that you have so much practice already in taking on new challenges and new experiences,” she said. “I hope...
Thirty-three years in the classroom have taught Nikky-Guninder Singh how community is made. Through the shared act of reading and discussing texts, “You create a community,” Singh said, citing Tolstoy, “because the artist or the writer … was so infected. And then passing on your disease was kind of contagious.” Singh, the Crawford Family Professor...
Professor of Art Véronique Plesch delivered a public lecture at Bates College May 15. Her lecture, “’Desiring Italy’ and Taking Her Home,” took place in the context of the short-term course “Desiring Italy,” taught by Rebecca Corrie, the Phillips Professor of Art and Visual Culture.
First Forward Designation Puts Colby Among National Leaders in First-Generation Efforts Colby College has received a First Forward Designation from the Center for First-generation Student Success for its commitment to improving experiences and advancing outcomes of first-generation college students. Colby is one of just 80 schools nationwide to be included in the organization’s inaugural group...
Sculptor and artist Jim Condron ’92 has an exhibition at Wings Over Wall Street, a benefit gala for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Condron’s exhibition, Close to You, is the first contemporary art exhibition at the annual event, held May 22, 2019. The sculptures pay homage to Condron’s mother, who passed away last July from ALS and was the...
Amidst the surprises at the annual Student Awards Program, the most anticipated is the Condon Medal winner. As President David A. Greene described this year’s winner—passionate about civic engagement, making positive change on campus, co-president of the Feminist Alliance—anticipation turned to recognition so that when Lily Herrmann ’19 was named as winner, few were surprised....
Students in the Humanities Lab “Life in Times of Extinction” published an op-ed in the Times Record titled “Brown Ash Endangerment and Indigenous Solutions.” Grace Neumiller ’21, Keller Leet-Otley ’19, and Tommaso Wagner ’19 wrote the letter for the class, taught by Chris Walker, the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Humanities, as part of their assignment to adopt and...
Professor of Psychology Martha Arterberry was profiled by the psychology journal Infant Behavior & Development, at which she serves as editor-in-chief. The profile shows how her path from undergraduate work at Pomona College, to an exchange program at Swarthmore College, to graduate work at the University of Minnesota kept her research focused on infant perception. Arterberry finds...
One of the largest liberal arts research symposia in the nation grew even larger this week as more than 700 students from all class years and disciplines shared their scholarly work with the Colby community at the Colby Liberal Arts Symposium (CLAS). “I think often, with my friends, we don’t necessarily talk about what we’re...
Christian A. Johnson Professor of Liberal Integrated Study Joe Reisert just completed his term as president of the New England Political Science Association by chairing the group’s 2019 annual meeting in Portland. Political scientists have gathered annually under the NEPSA banner since 1949, and this year’s NEPSA gathering broke the association’s record for attendance and conference papers....
Student teams competed at Colby’s Venture Pitch Competition April 26 for a $15,000 prize, selling their ideas in the allotted seven minutes. The judges were impressed, so much so that they ultimately decided there wasn’t one winner—there were three. Each was awarded $5,000. “It was good last year, and honestly it was great this year,”...
When Emmanuel Cheruiyot ’21 first came to Colby from rural Kenya, he was asked one question again and again: Have you read Harry Potter? He hadn’t. He hadn’t even heard of the fictional wizard. The question made him feel ashamed and out of place. Now, he’s found a way to turn that embarrassment into action...
At a time when competition for federal grant funding has never been greater, Colby College has established the Pulver Science Scholars Program, designed to create a pipeline for the most ambitious and talented students from all backgrounds to pursue research at the nation’s top biomedical laboratories. Trustee David Pulver and his wife, Carol, made the...
John “Swisher” Mitchell was, and will always be, legendary at Colby and in Waterville. A prodigious talent on the basketball court, he led Waterville Senior High School to the New England championship in 1944 and had a storied coaching career at Colby. For 44 years he was a quiet but influential presence on the Colby...
Colby College has been awarded a $600,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the Colby Museum’s Lunder Institute for American Art and its inaugural programming. The award will add depth to the institute’s programs, which have already made an impact on Colby students and faculty, Waterville school children, and visiting artists. In...
