After the Meltdowns
Three alumni experts offer their perspectives on nuclear power in the wake of the disaster in Japan. Japanese engineers are still measuring damage at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, which was devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March. The disaster left the plant without backup power to keep nuclear fuel rods cool,…
Chemistry as Art
Of all the books lining the shelves of beloved chemistry professor Hodge Markgraf’s ’52 office in Bronfman, only two dealt with subjects outside of his field of study. Both were monographic volumes on the art of Jenny Holzer. Holzer is known the world over for using language to engage and provoke. Her texts have been…
The Journey Itself
Applying for a national fellowship is grueling work, and the chances of winning are slim. But the process alone can change a student’s life. Hanna Saltzman ’12 sits in her parents’ backyard in Salt Lake City, Utah, pen in hand, a thick notebook across her lap and a cast on her ankle. Laid up with…
Eph Cappella
Williams student groups are like quarks. They come and go so quickly that it’s nearly impossible to keep a current list. From the Gospel Choir to the Garfield Republican Club to the South Asian Students Association to the Springstreakers, they express every contemporary student interest, talent and affiliation, but no discernible trend—with one grand exception….
Mystery Woman
Is she a wealthy and beautiful matron? A spirit of the dead? A genomic mess? Three professors offer their perspectives on a Roman bust on view at the Williams College Museum of Art as part of Labeltalk 2011: Art of the Ancient World, which closes July 13. Oh gods. Something is most strange here. Where…
Exile on Bourbon Street
“Any time you write a story that attends to people’s social or political lives as well as their interior, emotional lives, there is going to be a lot of tension among elements.” —Tom Piazza ’76 Tom Piazza ’76 had been addressing the theme of displacement in his fiction for years before Hurricane Katrina uprooted him from…
Imagined Museums
What happens when a community becomes disconnected from its museums? In the case of Morocco, says Prof. Katarzyna Pieprzak, artists create their own spaces. Katarzyna Pieprzak was a graduate student studying Arabic in Fez in 1998 when she took a road trip across Morocco with friends. Their journey took them to Tangier, the North African…
Williams Welcomes Class of 2015
A total of 550 students are expected to join the college’s Class of 2015, selected from the second largest pool of applicants in Williams history. Though the exact who’s who won’t be known until students arrive on campus in late August for orientation, the general makeup of the group is: 51 percent female, 49 percent…
Further Afield
Williams professors in the news “Politically, it’s a major success … although Al Qaeda will still exist without Osama bin Laden.” —Political science professor James McAllister, who teaches the class “America and the World After September 11,” discussing how bin Laden’s death at the hands of U.S. forces signals both a victory for President Barack…
Melendy New Athletic Director
Lisa Melendy, former head coach of women’s soccer at Williams, was named chair and director of physical education, athletics and recreation, effective April 4. In her 25 years at Williams, she spent 17 as head coach, during which time she was named regional coach of the year three times and NESCAC coach of the year…
Kellogg House to be Remodeled After Move
To make room for the new Stetson Library, a project scheduled to begin in June, Kellogg House is moving to a new site near Hollander Hall. A planned expansion of Kellogg will create a new home for the Center for Environmental Studies and the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives, physically uniting the two programs for…
Puddester Named VP for Finance / Administration
As the final step in a realignment of senior administrative responsibilities across the college, President Adam Falk has named Frederick Puddester of Johns Hopkins University to the newly created position of vice president for finance and administration, starting July 1. After spending two decades in Maryland State government, including four years as secretary of budget…
Booker, Bancroft, Burns Highlight Commencement
As this issue of the Alumni Review was going to press, the campus was bustling in preparation for Commencement Weekend June 4-5. Highlighting the schedule were a question-and-answer session with filmmaker Ken Burns on Saturday afternoon, a baccalaureate address by Arctic and Antarctic explorer Ann Bancroft on Saturday evening and a commencement address by Newark,…
Scene and Herd June 2011
Booker, Bancroft, Burns Highlight Commencement As this issue of the Alumni Review was going to press, the campus was bustling in preparation for Commencement Weekend June 4-5. Highlighting the schedule were a question-and-answer session with filmmaker Ken Burns on Saturday afternoon, a baccalaureate address by Arctic and Antarctic explorer Ann Bancroft on Saturday evening and…
Freedom Rider
That an 18-year-old from Massachusetts journeyed to Mississippi in 1964 to fight—at great personal risk—in the forefront of the civil rights movement is a remarkable story (“Taking Democracy Door to Door,” March 2011). That this personal journey ultimately brought Chris Williams to Williamstown is our great fortune. Chris was quiet about his incredible experience for…
The Community We Aspire to Be
“Assembling a community is only the first step. We need also to structure and support it.” People who haven’t seen the college for a while are often pleasantly surprised by how different the campus looks. I don’t mean the buildings, but the people. Our growing racial and ethnic diversity is clearly evident to any visitor,…