Opening a Tongolese restaurant has been a dream of Director of African Drumming Messan Jordan Benissan’s for years. A dinner that he and students Tristan Friedman ’17 and Theo Satloff ’19 prepared for the Wiscasset (Maine) Area Chamber of Commerce members Dec. 8 took the entrepreneur one step closer to achieving that dream. The dinner...
Making Refuge, the latest book by Catherine Besteman, Francis F. Bartlett and Ruth K. Bartlett Professor of Anthropology, was named one of the best books of 2016 by Foreign Affairs magazine. Subtitled Somali Bantu Refugees and Lewiston, Maine, the book chronicles Besteman’s coincidental reunion in Lewiston with Bantu refugees she had met as a doctoral student in Somalia in...
Ornithologist Herb Wilson, Leslie Brainerd Arey Professor of Biosciences, presented a talk “The Patterns of Maine’s Migratory Breeding Birds” as part of the University of New England Center for Global Humanities’ lecture series. In this Dec. 12 lecture, Wilson summarized findings from his 22-year citizen-science project that monitors the arrival of more than 100 bird species in Maine...
An unprecedented harmful algae bloom off the coast of New England this fall provided a unique opportunity for Colby students studying at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. Students in Bigelow’s semester-in-residence program conducting research along the Damariscotta River collected seawater samples during a large bloom of the harmful algae Pseudo-nitzschia, detected first near the Canadian...
An op-ed by Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Gail Carlson details an increase in many deadly and debilitating diseases that are linked to climate change. “Make no mistake about it: Climate change is deadly,” Carlson writes Dec. 10 in the Morning Sentinel. She cites research from the Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change and the U.S. Global...
Cal Mackenzie, Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of Government, emeritus, was quoted in a Wall Street Journal story about concerns over Donald Trump’s choice of generals for top posts in his administration. “Just categorizing them as generals is a disservice to them,” said Mackenzie, who has studied presidential transitions. More striking, perhaps, is the unfamiliarity Trump has with his cabinet...
“Asphyxiating the Silence in Your Neck of the Woods: On the Importance of Speech Tones” is the title of Associate Professor of English Adrian Blevin’s “Craft Tip of the Month” in the December poetry newsletter by Diane Lockward. “There are many methods and techniques for meaning more than you say,” Blevins offers, “but my favorite is...
Associate Professor of Global Studies Maple Razsa and Video Journalist Milton Guillén were awarded a Kindling Fund Grant from SPACE Gallery, in Portland, Maine, for their film The Maribor Uprisings: A Live Participatory Documentary. The grant will allow the filmmakers to work with a theater director and an activist facilitator to further develop the live experience of the film. The fund,...
The Portland Press Herald and the Morning Sentinel ran a story and photos about a student-led march on campus against hate and Trump’s immigration policy. More than 300 students marched across Miller Quad in solidarity and “called on people to stand up and take action against injustice, bigotry, hate and violence,” the Herald reported Dec. 1. “In being here today, we affirm...
Julie Millard, The Dr. Gerald and Myra Dorros Professor of Chemistry, has been named a fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Millard is one of 391 recently named fellows “whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications in service to society have distinguished them among their peers and...
A new essay by Associate Professor of English Adrian Blevins, titled “Late-Breaking Yew-Berry News from the Madman’s Love Shack,” appears in Vox Populi, a forum for the discussion of contemporary politics through poetry, prose, and video. This essay is part of a series of Blevins’s essays in Vox Populi. The essay also opens a new anthology—Best Creative Nonfiction...
WATERVILLE, Maine–Select Colby College students will have a chance to work with one of the nation’s top cancer researchers, thanks to a generous gift endowing the Paul J. Schupf Colby College/Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Internship. The gift from Trustee Emeritus Paul J. Schupf LL.D.’06 establishes the summer experience at the renowned medical center. “Paul Schupf’s...
The Maine Humanities Council (MHC) has awarded Maine poet Gary Lawless ’73 with the 2017 Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize. Lawless, who owns and operates Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick, “has long encouraged others to find their voice with poetry, working with veterans groups, immigrant communities, and more,” a press release from the...
With Colby’s emphasis on undergraduate research, fieldwork, and exploration of Maine’s natural resources, it’s no surprise to find two dozen biology students combing the intertidal zone in Acadia National Park in October, identifying plant and animal species. But finding an exotic tropical fish they initially mistook for a cartoon character? And then publishing its photo...
Pacific Standard published a Q&A between Visiting Assistant Professor of Writing Elisabeth Stokes and writer Blair Braverman ’11. The two Alaskan writers talked “landscape, identity, survival, and the problem with the term alpha male,” in the Nov. 14 piece. Following the release of Braverman’s Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube, a coming-of-age memoir set in the Arctic, Stokes asks about Braverman’s experience pushing into...
Whipple-Coddington Professor of Geology Robert Gastaldo has been reappointed to a four-year term as research associate of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. Gastaldo, who has been affiliated with the institution for more than 30 years, is collaborating with Smithsonian’s William DiMichele on several ongoing projects. They are finishing a manuscript on ecosystem...
Light from distant galaxies is now easier to collect and analyze with Colby’s new 28-inch telescope, the largest in New England. Dedicated during Family Homecoming Weekend, the research-grade, robotic telescope, housed in the Young Observatory, is the largest in New England and will facilitate new research and collaborative projects for students and faculty. The acquisition...
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Travis Reynolds co-published an article in the journal World Development on husband and wife decision-making authority in farm households in sub-Saharan Africa. The research analyzes the program and policy implications of differences in husband and wife self-reported authority over farm decisions in rural Tanzania. The authors found that husbands and...
At the annual History of Science Society meeting in Atlanta (Nov. 3-6), Charles A. Dana Professor of Science, Technology, and Society James R. Fleming will chair and comment in a session titled “Intersections of Industrial and Academic Science,” he will present on science policy for the Joint Caucus on Socially Engaged Philosophy and History of...
Associate Professor and Director of the Environmental Studies Program Philip J. Nyhus published an invited review paper, “Human–Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence,” in volume 41 of the journal Annual Review of Environment and Resources. The publication provides authoritative reviews of significant topics within environmental science. The journal is ranked third out of 104 ranked journals in the category...
