An article by Assistant Professor of English Aaron Hanlon titled “The Myth of the Liberal ‘Echo Chamber’ on Campus” in the New Republic magazine challenges the notion in essays by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof “that liberals in academia—people like me—are intolerant of, and politically biased against, conservatives on campus.” Highlighting events at Colby pre- and post-election,...
Professor of Art Véronique Plesch delivered a lecture via Skype titled “Words, Images, and Materiality in Early Performance” for students in the advanced studies in the materialities of literature Ph.D. program at the School of Arts and Humanities and the Centre for Portuguese Literature, University of Coimbra. Plesch’s Dec. 20 lecture is part of a seminar...
Sunday’s Dec. 16 New York Times ran an op-ed by Dana Professor of Sociology Neil Gross titled “Are Americans Experiencing Collective Trauma?” in which Gross defines the psychological phenomenon and recounts its origins. Gross recounts past collective traumatic events including the 1972 Buffalo Creek flood in West Virginia and the 1989 Polish revolution, concluding, “Last month’s presidential election...
At a White House Hanukkah reception, Rabbi Rachel Isaacs delivered an invocation with President and Mrs. Obama on either side of her. The President introduced Isaacs and called out Colby and Waterville’s Beth Israel Congregation, where Isaacs is spiritual leader. Isaacs spoke of Hanukkah as a “festival that teaches us it is always darkest before the...
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 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...
“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...
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...
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...
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...
Associate Professor of Art Gary Green‘s new book, After Morandi, will be featured at several events at this year’s Paris Photo. The festival, which draws more than 60,000 visitors each year, features fine art photography from around the world. Green’s book (Urbanautica/L’Artiere, 2016) was described by critic and publisher Steve Bisson as “the result of an...
Associate Professor of Global Studies Maple Razsa won the 2016 William A. Douglass Prize in Europeanist Anthropology for his monograph Bastards of Utopia: Living Radical Politics After Socialism. The annual prize, given by the Society for the Anthropology of Europe, honors the best book published in Europeanist anthropology. Razsa’s project is a “multimedia approach [that] offers substantial innovations not...
Ainslie Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Loren McClenachan coauthored an article titled “Collateral damage to marine and terrestrial ecosystems from Yankee whaling in the 19th century,” which appeared in Ecology and Evolution. The results of the research show that “the ecosystem impacts of whaling reverberated on both marine and coastal environments.” The article was a collaboration among McClenachan, Joshua...
An op-ed by Professor of Education Mark Tappan calls for resistance to Donald Trump’s “toxic masculinity,” noting its perpetrators and sources, while also pointing to examples of healthy masculinity. “White working-class men are suffering, economically, socially, and physically,” Tappan writes in the Portland Press Herald Oct. 23, and their allegiance to Trump stems from “fear and shame...
Bartlett Professor of Anthropology Catherine Besteman will present a paper titled “Refugee Matters and the Anthropological Gaze” at the 115th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Besteman’s paper will be part of session called Life Matters: Accountability, Complicity, Politics sponsored by the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology and the Society for Cultural Anthropology....
Associate Professor of Philosophy Lydia Moland will give a keynote address at the fourth annual Lehigh Philosophy Conference Oct. 27-28. Moland’s talk, “Artistic Idealism: Hegelian Themes in Contemporary Art,” reflects her expertise on Hegel and her most recent project, a comprehensive interpretation of Hegel’s aesthetics. Moland received a 2015 grant from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst to...
