Professor of Government Dan Shea contributed an op-ed to the Portland Press Herald titled “Maine Voices: Partisan divide may benefit Moore, as it did Trump.” Shea notes that in the last 10 years, elections have become partisan and “straight-ticket voting, for example, has reached unprecedented levels.” Voters band together like teams without a shared sense of purpose,...
Herb Wilson, the Leslie Brainerd Arey Professor of Biosciences, wrote a birding column for the Portland Press Herald titled “Why do grebes eat their feathers?” Wilson starts off with a description of grebes, their characteristics and behaviors. He then cites a recent paper that “provides a definitive study of the functional significance of feather-eating in grebes,” which aids...
Dare Northward, Colby’s innovative and ambitious comprehensive campaign, was launched and celebrated in New York City Dec. 5-6 with a series of events for alumni, parents, and friends. Support from generous trustees made these “only-in-New-York” moments possible; the celebration included lighting the Empire State Building in Colby blue and a special event at Jazz at Lincoln...
Professor of Mathematics Leo Livshits and Joshua Hews ’17 have published an original research article in the Electronic Journal of Linear Algebra. Titled “Groups of Matrices That Act Monopotently” the paper deals with the properties of the eigenvalues of a complex matrix, which are complex numbers associated with the matrix that capture some essential information about its...
Assistant Professor of Biology Chris Moore and colleagues have authored a paper in theoretical ecology in the journal Ecological Modelling. Titled “Population dynamics of mutualism and intraspecific density dependence: How θ-logistic density dependence affects mutualistic positive feedback,” Moore et al. challenge a 40-year paradigm that positive species interactions are prevented from positive feedback through diminishing benefits...
Assistant Professor of English Aaron Hanlon penned a piece titled “The use of dubious science to defend racism is as old as the Founding Fathers” that appeared on NBC News’s digital platform “Think.” Hanlon delves into the “less palatable elements of 18th century Enlightenment history” to argue that a “sloppy application of scientific knowledge in...
Professor of Education Lyn Mikel Brown collaborated with Emma Renold of Cardiff University and Dana Edell to bring AGENDA, a youth activism toolkit, to the United States. “Together, they have expanded AGENDA’s change-making ideas toolkit with support for intergenerational partnerships, extended tactics and examples, and additional information and resources specific to sexual violence prevention,” a...
Volcanologist and National Geographic Explorer Stephanie Grocke ’09 participated in a month-long expedition to Xela, Guatemala, to study the active Santiaguito volcano there. Grocke collaborated with two other explorers to create a “multimedia outreach campaign that will highlight the risks associated with living near an active lava dome,” and includes an online photo exhibit. Grocke, a geology...
Professors F. Russell Cole (environmental studies, emeritus), Cathy Bevier (biology), and Philip Nyhus (environmental studies) coauthored a paper in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. Titled “Assessing LakeSmart, a community-based lake protection program,” the paper included contributions from Alexa Junker ’16 and Sophie Sarkar ’11. The paper assesses the LakeSmart program, which was created in...
Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Philip Nyhus has collaborated with students in two recently published papers. “Global patterns and trends in human-wildlife conflict compensation,” coauthored with Jeremy Ravenelle ’18, appears in the December 2017 issue of Conservation Biology, which is the flagship journal of the Society for Conservation Biology. The team “reviewed research on wildlife-damage compensation...
Charles A. Dana Professor of Science, Technology, and Society James Fleming was quoted in a New Atlas articled titled “The geoengineering debate: Can imitating volcanic eruptions combat climate change?” While combatting climate change through geoenginnering has slowly gained popularity, some call it untestable, such as Naomi Klein. “…you could not conduct meaningful tests of these technologies without enlisting...
A front-page story in The Boston Globe explores Colby’s decision to name the President’s House for the family of “Janitor Sam” Osborne, the College’s beloved custodian in the late 19th century. Samuel Osborne, born into slavery, worked for nearly four decades at Colby and his daughter, Marion Osborne, was the first female African-American graduate in...
President David A. Greene gave Senator Susan Collins a tour of Colby’s downtown properties Nov. 21, and the tour was covered by the Morning Sentinel and published in the Portland Press Herald. The tour included the 100,000-square-foot mixed-use building currently under construction, about which Collins commented, “I was so stunned by the size. This is a game changer...
Me Lon Togo, the Togolese restaurant that Jordan Messan Benissan, Colby’s director of African drumming, opened in Searsport, Maine, last summer, was covered by the Ellsworth American Nov. 16. “Benissan said the qualities that make West African food what it is include it being made from scratch, taking time to prepare it, the use of fresh ingredients, and...
Andrea Tilden, the J. Warren Merrill Associate Professor of Biology, is spending her sabbatical year as a visiting scientist in comparative genomics at the MDI Biological Laboratory, a press release from the lab said Nov. 14. “Tilden is using the science of bioinformatics, also referred to as computational biology, to study how genomes evolve, and what science can...
Emma Brown ’16, campaign manager for Wendy Gooditis, who recently won a race to represent the District 10 in the Virginia House of Delegates, was quoted in a Nov. 12 New York Times story titled “Despite Recent Wins for Democrats, Gerrymanders Dim Hopes for 2018.” Gooditis won, in part, due to volunteer efforts. “We knocked on every single...
Gail Carlson, assistant professor of environmental studies, won the 2017 Science Champion Award from the Environmental Health Strategy Center. Actively engaged in public policy debates on environmental issues in Maine, Carlson has testified at key committee hearings of the Maine Legislature and was “especially impressive as the clear winner of a debate at a committee briefing on...
Pollock-Krasner award winner Jim Condron ’92 showed 35 of his works of art at the Julio Fine Arts Gallery in an exhibition titled “Picking Up the Pieces.” ArtDaily.org reviewed the exhibit and said, “The artist draws on humor and memory, and finds unexpected beauty in juxtaposing everyday objects and cast-off remnants with the traditional medium of paint.”...
A weekly column called “Deep Water: Maine Poems” in the Portland Press Herald featured a poem by Associate Professor of English Adrian Blevins. Titled Kitchen Confessions, the poem speaks of the poet’s hatred for President Trump: “apparently this poem / needs to be about how I like / my Trump hate pinned right here / to my sad American breast.”
Tablet‘s editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse centered her article “Introducing Tablet en Español” around her participation in an annual conference sponsored by Colby’s Center for Small Town Jewish Life. Unsure what she was getting herself into, it ‘turned out to be one of the most meaningful events I’ve done in years.” Newhouse gives special thanks to Rabbi Rachel Isaacs...
