On May 20 Dana Professor of Sociology Neil Gross published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times titled “Professors are overwhelmingly liberal. Do universities need to change hiring practices?” The article concludes: “As a rule, politics should play no role at all in academic employment decisions; we should neither keep conservatives out nor fast-track their...
Karlene Burrell-McRae ’94, currently associate dean of students and executive director of the Center for Identity + Inclusion at the University of Chicago, has been named dean of the College at Colby. In this role Burrell-McRae will have broad oversight of the student experience at Colby and will work to fully integrate Colby’s academic and...
Professor of Art Véronique Plesch will be the plenary speaker at the international conference Crossing Borders: Appropriations and Collaborations, held June 29–July 1 at the College of the Holy Cross. Plesch, an expert in Word and Image studies, is currently president of the International Association of Word and Image Studies. This event is sponsored by the international...
In a New Republic essay, Assistant Professor of English Aaron Hanlon takes issue with a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Why Free Speech Matters on Campus” by Michael Bloomberg and Charles Koch. “If Bloomberg and Koch really want ‘robust dialogue with their fellow citizens,’ they could start by acknowledging that they wield more stifling influence,...
Dana Professor of Sociology Neil Gross published an opinion piece in the May 15 Sunday New York Times titled “Why Are the Highly Educated So Liberal?” In it he draws connections between a 1979 book by sociologist Alvin Gouldner, The Future of Intellectuals and the Rise of the New Class, and a recent Pew Research Center...
Dana Professor James Rodger Fleming (science, technology, and society) will discuss anti-skyscapes and anti-soundscapes at the Royal Anthropological Institute conference on weather and climate change at the British Museum in London May 29. “Anti-skyscapes can be gloomy, menacing, and increasingly—in the case of climate change—invisible,” according to a press release on the conference. “Performance artists...
Colby has approved plans to convert the Grossman residence hall into a facility tentatively being called the Center for Postgraduate Success, with construction beginning this spring. The new home for Colby’s Career Center was approved by the Board of Trustees in April, and the overhauled and expanded building is expected to open by fall 2017....
President David A. Greene will present bachelor of arts degrees to approximately 500 seniors at Colby College’s 195th Commencement Sunday, May 22. The ceremony, which is open to the public, will begin at 10 a.m. in front of Miller Library and will be webcast at colby.edu. Members of the Class of 2016 came to Colby...
Media outlets nationwide, including the New York Times, shared the news of the gift of 100 etchings by Pablo Picasso made to the Colby College Museum of Art. More than two dozen newspapers from California to Florida posted the Associated Press story, as did Maine Public Broadcasting. Of the etchings in the Vollard Suite, “You often see the artist...
Robert A. Gastaldo, Whipple-Coddington Professer of Geology, will receive the 2016 Gilbert H. Cady Award from the Geological Society of America’s Energy Division. The award will be formally presented at the GSA’s annual meeting in Denver Sept. 25-28. The Cady Award is presented to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of coal...
News of construction of Colby’s nine-acre solar farm, just underway, caught the attention of media outlets around the country. “Electrical work for the project will be done between now and August,” Kevin Bright, Colby’s sustainability coordinator, told the Portland Press Herald May 4,”and structures that hold the solar panels will be installed sometime after that.” WABI-TV...
Three Colby graduates—Blair Braverman ’11, Dan Opalacz ’10, and Sophie Sarkar ’11—were selected from more than 600 nominations for the Outdoor Industry Association’s inaugural Outdoor 30 Under 30 list. Selected from a panel of outdoor industry standouts, the list highlights future game changers who are challenging the status quo and driving the industry forward, according...
Colby has chosen Bon Appétit Management Co. as its new dining services provider, effective July 1, following a months-long selection process. The program proposed by Bon Appétit—an award-winning industry pioneer whose mission is “food service for a sustainable future”—emerged as the leader in the selection process for its focus on food quality, variety, local sourcing,...
When President David A. Greene presented the Condon Medal at the eighth annual Colby Student Awards Ceremony May 3, he prefaced the reveal by saying, “It’s like the Oscars. … Sometimes you get hints throughout the night.” The biggest surprise wasn’t that Bonnie Maldonado ’16 was the winner (Greene had already handed her four other...
Applied Music Associate Messan Jordan Benissan will be the commencement speaker at the Watershed School in Camden, Maine, June 11. Benissan, a master African drummer and teacher, was selected by the private secondary school as the overwhelming favorite of the senior class, according to head of school Will Galloway. Benissan previously worked with the Watershed student...
Three Colby seniors, winners of prestigious Fulbright grants for the coming year, will depart for Europe and Asia following graduation. Elizabeth Grun ’16 of Water Mill, N.Y.; Lynna Lei ’16 of San Francisco, Calif.; and William Qualey ’16 of Norridgewock, Maine, will spend the 2016-17 academic year as English teaching assistants in Germany, Taiwan, and...
Raffael Scheck, the Audrey Wade Hittinger Katz Professor of History, recently contributed a chapter to a book titled Colonial Soldiers in Europe, 1914-1945: Aliens in Uniform in Wartime Societies. Scheck’s chapter is titled “French Colonial Prisoners in Germany and France during World War II,” and it appears in a volume edited by H. J. Storm...
Dana Professor of Sociology Neil Gross told Inside Higher Ed that he’s not surprised by findings from a recent Pew Research Center study that shows people with graduate degrees have more liberal political views than those with just undergraduate degrees. “The evidence doesn’t show that exposure to higher education turns Republicans into Democrats,” Gross said...
Professor of Psychology Martha Arterberry’s new book, Development of Perception in Infancy: The Cradle of Knowledge Revisited (Oxford Press, 2016), presents infant perception research and places it in a philosophical context. The updated book, cowritten with Philip J. Kellman and originally published in 1998 (MIT), also discusses the perceptual underpinnings of social and cognitive development and its importance in...
A typical Wednesday morning class at Colby turned extraordinary April 20 when Maya Lin—renowned artist, architect, and environmental activist—joined the class Environmental Studies 118, Environment and Society, for a conversation with students. Lin spent two days on campus meeting with students and delivering the Miles and Katharine Culbertson Prentice Distinguished Lecture in a packed Lorimer...
