Duration: 58:31

• Introduction from President William D. Adams: 0:00-9:30
• Honorary degree citation: 9:30-12:00
• Paul Salopek's address: 12:00-32:00
• Question-and-answer period: 32:00-58:31

Ira Sadoff, the Arthur Jeremiah Roberts Professor of English, is a distinguished poet whose work appears in his own books and in many anthologies, magazines, and journals. But Sadoff, as his many creative-writing alumni know, is also, in the words of poet Charles Simic, “a close reader.” In a way that praise is a bit of a misnomer, as Sadoff’s gift for close examination of the language of poetry is simultaneously far-ranging. In this book of criticism, he explores the shoulder-rubbing of poets and culture, and he argues that poetry is most compelling when it is considered as art shaped by the artist’s connection to time and place.

If that description seems dry, it shouldn’t. Sadoff’s passion for the power of language resounds throughout the book. Like a jazz critic, he revels in words that soar from the page—that conclude and crystallize a composition with the single unexpected phrase.

The comparison is apt, as Sadoff considers contemporary poets—Louise Glück, Czesaw Miosz, John Ashbery among others—but also conjures up the exploratory spirit of John Coltrane and Billie Holiday.

There’s much to quote in the book, which one critic hailed as “a thrilling and brave defense of poetry.” Sadoff’s interpretation both focuses precisely on language and throws up the backdrop of culture that prompts and silhouettes poetry and other art. The explication of Frank O’Hara’s poem on the death of Billie Holiday, “The Day Lady Died,” is worth the price of admission.

The speaker wanders Manhattan on an afternoon in 1959, buying a hamburger, cigarettes, orbiting the darkened star that is the poem’s punctuation:

and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT
while she whispered a song along the keyboard to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing

“The effect of this final stanza is breathtaking,” Sadoff writes, and then he shows how the speaker has been set adrift by loss, by the angst of America in the Cold War 1950s, making readers “feel both more human and more alone.” 

In the end, the book is about what Sadoff calls “the true meaning of transcendence: not leaving the body, but dwelling in the world of language and the language of the world not only to recreate experience but also to create it.

Duration: 9:22

From the Fall 2009 issue of Colby magazine

Good for the Jews follows Mose Sheinbaum, a veteran schoolteacher, and his cousin, Ellen Hirschorn, whom he raised and who is engaged to the superintendent. When Mose faces possible anti-Semitism from the new principal, Ellen is caught in the middle and is left to navigate an intricate matrix of relationships, lies, and secrets.

Spark unveils her characters slowly, primarily using dialogue. The daily lives of these modern Jews in Madison, Wisconsin, seem ordinary until we get to know their struggles as they confront institutions and prejudices. Spark’s treatment of the characters shows the complexity of their concerns and the difficulty of dividing the world into Mose’s two categories: “what was good for the Jews and what wasn’t.” 

Even after arson and murder expose the anti-Semitism, secrets remain and Ellen wonders if they were all “hapless actors, unwittingly cast in some biblical story, where being right meant being rewarded and being rewarded meant demolishing your enemy.”

What’s good for the Jews? There’s no simple answer, but Spark’s insightful story demonstrates how fear and dishonesty take us away from what’s best for everyone: respect and understanding.

 Duration: 5:16

From the Fall 2009 issue of Colby magazine

Each year, English professor Phyllis Mannocchi offers American Studies course 378s, "American Dreams: The Documentary Film Perspective" in which teams of students research, write, film, and produce documentary films. This film is part of the American Dreams documentary series.

Each year, English professor Phyllis Mannocchi offers American Studies course 378s, "American Dreams: The Documentary Film Perspective" in which teams of students research, write, film, and produce documentary films. This film is part of the American Dreams documentary series.

Each year, English professor Phyllis Mannocchi offers American Studies course 378s, "American Dreams: The Documentary Film Perspective" in which teams of students research, write, film, and produce documentary films. This film is part of the American Dreams documentary series.

(2 hours 58 minutes)

For more information on Colby and the economy, visit the Colby and the Economy page.

(56 minutes, 53 seconds | 65 MB)

(10 munites, 4 seconds | 11.5 MB)

• Professor Anthony Corrado, Government Department
• Professor David Findlay, Economics Department
• Professor Emeritus Henry Gemery, Economics Department

• 00:00 - 18:40 | Presentation of the Class of 2012, Dean Beverage
• 18:40 - 45:20 | Welcome and Address, President Adams
  
• 45:20 - 47:15 | Alma Mater, led by the Colby 8
• 47:15 - 49:51 | Benediction, Father Daniel Baillargeon

Total Time: 49:15

Professor Tietenberg is introduced by fellow Colby economics professor Michael Donihue.

Mitchell Professor of Economics Tom Tietenberg, a world-renowned expert on using tradable permits to control pollution, will continue to maintain two online databases in his retirement, which started in summer 2008. He describes his online tradable permits bibliography and scores of executive summaries of sustainable development case studies prepared by students, all online at http://www.colby.edu/~thtieten/.

Mitchell Professor of Economics Tom Tietenberg, a world-renowned expert on using tradable permits to control pollution, chose to teach at a liberal arts college because he found the interdisciplinary approach to environmental studies has "a huge payoff." As he approached retirement, Tietenberg responded in an interview when asked, "Why liberal arts?"