Assistant Professor of Government Laura Seay used a series of tweets to respond to Donald Trump’s call to shut down the Clinton Foundation. An expert on the Democratic Republic of Congo, Seay first tweeted “Surfacing from vacation to throw some knowledge at this nonsense,” and continued “I know teens & young adults who were kids then &...
David Strohl, assistant professor of anthropology, has received a six-month writing fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Goettingen, Germany. From July to December Strohl will complete work on a manuscript for a book project titled Moral projects: social imaginaries of religious revival and civic engagement among the...
In a New York Times op-ed titled “The Decline of Unions and the Rise of Trump,” Dana Professor of Sociology Neil Gross explores why unions are not as effective at pushing their members to “overcome prejudices bearing on politics” as they have been historically. Gross asks why unions haven’t “been able to tamp down the appeal of...
Professor of Art Véronique Plesch will deliver the plenary lecture “La pared y la piel: inscripción y reinscripción, cruzando fronteras” at the Second International Symposium in Comparative Literature “Cruzando fronteras: traducción, transposición, transmutación” in Bogotá, Colombia. The symposium is organized by the Department of Literature of the National University of Colombia, in collaboration with the...
A book that Professor of English David Suchoff translated and coedited, In Those Nightmarish Days: The Ghetto Reportage of Peretz Opoczynski and Josef Zelkowicz, was reviewed in Forward June 11. Suchoff translated most of the subjects’ writings from Yiddish in this “compendium that takes its name from the final story, a cri de coeur about the...
Professor of Government Dan Shea is quoted in a Washington Post story about Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence, who has been called “apologist-in-chief” for cleaning up Donald Trump’s “messes.” While most vice presidential candidates are on the offense, Pence’s role is reversed. “He has gone from attack dog to pooper scooper,” Shea told the Post, which...
Whipple-Coddington Professor of Geology Robert Gastaldo received a two-year grant from the National Science Foundation to continue his research in South Africa. The grant, Gastaldo’s eighth from the NSF since coming to Colby in 1999, supports his groundbreaking work on the End-Permian extinction event that he has researched since 2003 in South Africa’s Karoo Basin....
Associate Professor of Biology Catherine R. Bevier is one of three editors of the book Amphibian and Reptile Adaptations to the Environment: Interplay Between Physiology and Behavior (CRC Press, 2016). Bevier, an expert on animal behavior and behavioral ecology, wrote one of the chapters in the volume, “Physiological and Biochemical Correlates of Calling Behavior in Anurans with...
Dana Professor of Sociology Neil Gross counters the message put forth by pundit Frank Luntz at the Republican National Convention that academia is to blame for young people voting for Bernie Sanders. “Luntz doesn’t have his facts straight,” said Gross, who has studied politics and the professoriate. “Young Americans are leaning to the left these days,...
An article by Associate Professor of Biology Lynn Hannum appears in the July issue of Trends in Immunology. Titled “Developing Immunologists: A Role for Undergraduate Education,” Hannum’s article stresses the importance of teaching immunology early. “When undergraduates combine an immune system literacy with their interests in fields such as economics, sociology, or environmental studies,” she writes,...
Maine Magazine includes Professor of Education Lyn Mikel Brown on its 2016 list 50 Mainers Charting the State’s Future. Co-founder of Hardy Girls, Healthy Women, Brown was selected for her passion about girl-led social change efforts and her “commitment to working with schools and communities facing the challenges that arise from poverty,” Maine Mag reports in its...
Professor of English Debra Spark’s latest novel, Unknown Caller, was reviewed in Kirkus July 20 and called “an emotional and surprising story of a fractured family” written with “vibrant prose.” Spark, who also directs Colby’s Creative Writing Program, is said to offer “nuggets of poignant wisdom” in the book, which will be released Aug. 22. “Spark’s principal...
A paper by Whipple-Coddington Professor of Geology Robert A. Gastaldo has been published in the journal PALAIOS. Gastaldo’s paper, titled “New Paleontological Insights into the Emsian-Eifelian Trout Valley Formation, Baxter State Park’s Scientific Forest Management Area, Aroostock County, Maine,” appeared in the journal’s July volume. A PDF of the paper is available on Professor Gastaldo’s professional website.
Sandy Maisel, Kenan Professor of Government, notes the importance of context in a July 13 Los Angeles Times article about the consequences of party platforms. Even though platforms “tend to be more aspirational than fail-safe forecasts of what will happen,” the Times reports, they are “promises that never take into account political context, and political context is really...
Clare Booth Luce Assistant Professor of Physics Elizabeth McGrath was a guest on Maine Public Radio’s Maine Calling July 11 discussing recent astronomical news. Host Irwin Gratz talked with McGrath and two other astronomers about subjects such as the Juno spacecraft mission to Jupiter and the exoplanet 131399Ab.
Professor of Sociology Neil Gross conducted an interview on Wisconsin Public Radio about the abundance of liberal professors on college campuses. WPR’s Kathleen Dunn talked with Gross July 11 about the need to advocate for hiring more conservative professors, similar to that of affirmative action. “It’s true that professors are a liberal lot,” Gross said. “But against...
In an NPR commentary, Associate Professor of Psychology Christopher Soto examines why people act as they do. His essay, “Personality Can Change over a Lifetime, and Usually for the Better,” was published June 30 on NPR’s “Shots” page, which covers health news. “The nature, development and consequences of personality traits remain hot topics of research,...
Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Philip Nyhus is the editor of a new book series, “Biodiversity of the World: Conservation from Genes to Landscapes,” published by Elsevier, a leading provider of scientific, technical, and medical information products and services. Books in the series focus on specific species or taxa across disciplinary boundaries and spatial scales....
Dan Shea, professor of government and director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement, is one of the lecturers at this year’s Harding Symposium. Hosted by Ohio State University at Marion, the symposium includes nationally recognized political experts and is held at the home of former President Warren G. Harding. Shea speaks July 16,...
A special issue of the journal Radical History Review coedited by Associate Professor of American Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Lisa Arellano will be released in September. Titled “Reconsidering Gender, Violence and the State,” the issue brings together a broad range of interdisciplinary scholarship to fulfill the promise of its title as contributors,...
